Aviation & Allied Business sat down with Mr. Fansu Bojang, DG, Gambia Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and head of the Banjul Accord Group Secetariat (BAG) at the SAATM-PIP in Sierra Leone to discuss the implementation of SAATM in the BAG region and the state of air transport in Gambia post COVID-19, amongst other topics.
Q: What is the state of the air transport industry in Gambia?
A: Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the Banjul Accord Group and Gambian aviation in general. In Gambia, as you may recall, the whole air transport system was closed for about a year due to the COVID pandemic. However, I am happy to report that recovery has been on track since the end of COVID and I must say that, our recovery has gone faster than we expected. We had projected that air transport activities will return to pre-COVID levels in 2026, but as we speak, we have already surpassed the initial projections. This upward trajectory shows the resilience of our industry and is expected to continue
Q: Looking at the traffic figures, would you say the industry has been growing say in the past 5 years before COVID-19?
A: Before COVID, the trajectory has been very encouraging for Gambia. Our initial target was to reach 500,000 passengers per year. And right before COVID, we had hit over 400, 000. However, the advent of COVID, saw an immediate drop in those figures. However, we have hit the 400,000 mark again and are hopeful that by 2026, we would have hit the 500,000 passenger mark, fingers crossed.
Q: On the issue of high air fares in West and Central Africa, and in your position as Head of the BAG Secretariat, what do you think Africa needs to do to reduce high ticket prices?
A: Well, that’s a very significant question, and it is something we have been grappling with as states. As a region, we are considered to be amongst the most expensive in Africa and this is not an enviable position to be in. I think we are slightly better than Central Africa, albeit an insignificant difference. So, you can say that we are as expensive as Central Africa. If you look at our numbers compared to East (Africa) where they have far lesser airport charges, you would realize that they are doing much better than us in terms of passenger numbers. The insistence on having these high charges is a barrier to the development of passenger figures in our sub-region which is inhibiting the growth of aviation and connectivity in our region.
At the current rate of ticket prices in our sub-region, travelling by air is reserved for the elite as well as government travelers because it is beyond the reach of ordinary citizens, and these target groups have maxed out. The rest of the citizens cannot travel by air because they cannot afford it at this current rate of ticket prices. So, if we really want to improve air traffic and ensure an increase in air transport activities, we really have to think outside the box and ways of reducing the cost of air travel so that the everyday people, who should be our next target, can also choose to fly.
In essence, what we have to do is to stimulate growth and the stimulant in this case is reduction of the cost of travel. Airport charges and taxes constitute a large chunk of the cost of air tickets. For instance, in the cost of air travel between Gambia and Senegal, 60% of the total cost could be attributable to airport charges and taxes. So, if the cost of a ticket is US$100, that means US$60 would be charges and taxes. So, if we reduce that significant amount, the cost of travel will be reduced to a level where ordinary citizens can afford to travel by air. If you travel by air from Gambia to Senegal, depending on the day and your time of booking, it can cost up to US$500 for a 20-minute flight. Contrastingly, in Europe, one can easily travel on a similar route for US$20 or £20 on low-cost airlines that is because those are considered domestic flights, and don’t attract all these international charges.
In order to reduce the cost of air travel, we have decided to domesticate air travel between Banjul and Dakar which will get rid of these passenger charges and tariffs that are attributable to international traffic since travel between the two cities will be deemed domestic.
So, we are anticipating that with the full implementation of the domestication, there will be a surge in passenger numbers between the two countries.
Q: You mentioned another country in terms of the domestication?
A: Yes, we are looking at continuing that same trend with Sierra Leone. Senegal is our neighbour, but they (Senegal) are not part of the BAG Group. But Sierra Leone is a BAG member state. So, we thought we could do it with Sierra Leone also, and go incrementally. The idea is, at the end of the day, we domesticate traffic between all the BAG member states. We’re anticipating that this would not be very difficult to do because within BAG, we have already signed a Multilateral Air Services Agreement (MASA), replacing the bilateral air services agreements between the States which is applicable to all 7 member states. In essence, once one BAG State certifies an airline or gives them a license, this airline is now considered a BAG operator, meaning that the airline can easily fly to any of the countries which makes it much easier.
For new airlines to start operations, it is quicker to get licenses or permits in some States because they are proactive. However, for other countries, it might take more than six months, or sometimes a year or two before they grant the licenses. Fortunately, the practice in the BAG region is different. For instance, if a Nigerian airline wants to fly to the Gambia the licensing process may be quicker due to the fact that it is a BAG airline even though the airline has to be designated through normal diplomatic channels. Unless there are political situations which are beyond us and does happen sometime, we try to create this conducive environment, which makes operations really easy for the airline from a technical perspective.
With that already in place, domestication is just taking it a step further, because we still treat flights from Nigeria to Gambia as international flights which attracts a lot of charges because of the description and categorization. However, when we domesticate, as one family, a Lagos-Banjul flight will be treated like a domestic movement just like Lagos to Abuja.
Q: What will be the sharing formula for the revenue?
A: Well, there is no revenue sharing as the systems stay the same. What happens is that we lose certain taxes/charges we feel are burdens on the passengers as airport operators and States, in our efforts to open up our markets. These taxes are waived at no cost and it is worth pointing out that the airlines do not lose anything as it is the airports and the States reducing or removing certain taxes. This is a win-win situation though, as the revenues we lose from these reductions are recovered from the increased demand in passenger traffic.
Q: In some States where the airport is managed by a private entity. How is that going to happen?
A: We have limited control over private entities. However, we can always engage them since it is also in their interest that the numbers pick up because their revenues have direct correlation to the level of traffic in the airports, and the effort is to increase the traffic in those airports. We cannot impose anything on the airports but there is the need to rationalize with them and hopefully convincem to look at the bigger picture and, also get them to offer some the kind of concessions. Even where there are private operators, there are still some components of the charges that are controlled by the State such as overflight, air navigational and meteorology charges. The airport operators do not have full control over these charges and in addition States could waive Sales Tax as we did in the Gambia, we’ve done it for the tourism sector, to make the destination cheaper.
In the BAG region, private airport operators are not many, I think we only have it in Sierra Leone for now. Therefore, whether private or otherwise, the State still has significant leverage over airport charges and taxes.
Q: There are skills shortages in the sub region especially within your BAG Group, and also there is recent talk about harmonization of licenses. How are you collaborating in BAG to enhance human capacity?
A: This is a very relevant question and it hasn’t been missed by BAG, as it is one of the key reasons that motivated the creation of the Group. We are aware that we have scarce capacity, and we have a high attrition rate where we are losing key personnel not only to the airline industry, but also to international organizations, which is difficult to deal with.
In the case of Gambia, we’ve lost a pilot who we trained from scratch and who was very relevant in terms of our safety oversight. You would agree with me that it’s difficult to recruit a pilot with the requisite hours to carry out safety oversight, cockpit inspections, amongst others. It is a challenge to retain these personnel because when they mature, they have better offers with international organizations and you know that people have economic needs; so, they want to better themselves and their families economically.
Unfortunately, States cannot match the kind of emoluments that the international bodies offer, but what we do really to encourage and retain them, in the Gambia, and I think within some of BAG Group states, is to give them opportunities that could improve their income. For example, in the Gambia, we seconded a couple of pilots we trained, to Air Mali, where they were type-rated on Airbus aircraft and also started flying with the airline whilst still working as safety inspectors for GCAA.
This arrangement gave them the opportunity to build their flying hours, and also get paid by Air Mali whilst we still have them on the payroll of the CAA. They fly for 3 weeks and get back to office for a week. The arrangement has worked out well for both parties as the State is building the capacity of the pilots whilst they are getting reasonably remunerated. In addition, in terms of licensing, which you mentioned earlier, we validate licenses from BAG States instead of reissuing them due to the cooperation and trust in each other’s safety oversight systems, that close cooperation is really bridging that gap of lack of capacity within our CAAs, and I think that’s very crucial since we have the practice where we can second experts to each other.
Q: With the depth of the cooperation already existing within the BAG group, which areas are you looking at in terms of full operationalization of SAATM? What are the next steps?
A: All the 7 member states have signed up to SAATM, but only 5 out of the 7 members have signed up to the Pilot Implementation Project and only 3 have been audited. Sierra Leone will be audited soon. Talking with the Consultant who is retained by AFCAC, they are working on going to Ghana, Cape Verde and Liberia. So that would have been a major step because that means all of us are now committed to the full implementation of SAATM. The next step would be to fully and unconditionally implement the YD.
BAG States are already implementing our MASA, but for me, the next step to reflect in the full implementation is to domesticate air services between BAG States as once we domesticate, it will be more than reflective of YD. That’s why the Gambia is talking to Sierra Leone to start the process which is important and after that, we proceed incrementally. We cannot domesticate as a block at once, since that might be difficult. The spirit of the MASA really is freedom of access with regards to all the freedoms, including cabotage. So that means a Gambian airline can fly to Lagos and go to Abuja and take passengers in between without restrictions. But that was a little bit hard to sell for Nigeria initially, so we didn’t push it too much. We know that Nigeria’s domestic market is even more than the international as there are a lot of domestic airlines, so there is always a desire to protect these airlines and markets from so-called foreign competitors. But what they are missing is, within the spirit of BAG, those airlines from Gambia, Sierra Leone or Ghana are more or less the same as Nigerian carriers, as they’re all BAG carriers. That’s why we focused on the low hanging fruits. Hopefully, by the time we get to Ghana and Nigeria, they would have realized the great potential of opening up their domestic markets to BAG carriers
Q: So just for clarity, on the domestication, between Senegal and Gambia, I understand the presidents have signed, what is the delay? Is it because there’s a new administration?
A: Well, no. I think, it’s enforceable because, when this was signed, the decree was signed by the presidents and they have already been gazetted. Unless there’s a reversal you cannot stop the implementation. For now, only Air Senegal is flying the route, and the airline is designated by Senegal. So, the implementation should start from their end.
However, within the spirit of the MOU, we intend to write to them at our level as technicians that it’s been almost a year since this agreement has been signed and has not been implemented yet.
Q: Have you designated your own airline?
A: No, we have not because we don’t have an airline. Nevertheless, we are in discussion with an African airline, to designate them not as a BAG airline but under Article 6.2 and in line with Article 6.9 of the YD, just like Sierra Leone has designated Kenya Airways to Accra. Once we have designated the airline, we will be able to enforce the domestication from our end and waive certain taxes on tickets.
Q: Finally on the net zero and environment. In Africa, we look at it that we are not a net polluter, so we don’t get to hear so much about what you are doing in the BAG, in terms of environment. Why is BAG not paying enough attention to that?
A: It’s very relevant that we work as a Group to collectively look at what we should do to improve on the pollution. In the past, some of the BAG airlines were using very old aircraft whose pollution rate might be high. It is refreshing to know that, today, a lot of the aircraft being used have lower emission levels. I don’t think we have gotten to the level of South Africa where the airlines are using SAF. However, once our airlines start going international, they may have to start looking in terms of using clean energy and reducing their pollution levels. I think you are right when we look around, we think we are not net polluters maybe because the level of our operations compared to the West is almost insignificant. But at some point, we have to grow and start to have measures and strategies in place to make sure we prepare our airlines for the future and slowly start to graduate towards using SAF.
At the airport level, in the Gambia, we still depend on the National Grid, which is still fossil fuel, heavy oil, with a lot of pollution. And our backup generators are also heavy diesel. These are not helpful to the environment. We recently signed a contract with a private company, and we are going full solar, in a year or two. Once this is finalized, we will be able to produce our own clean energy from the solar farm even though we will still be connected to the national grid. We anticipate that we will produce more than what the airport needs to a level that we have signed a net metering agreement with the national grid, to sell to them the excess energy we will produce. Sierra Leone also is off grid actually as the airport is powered from solar. They still have backup generator and are connected to the grid, but they are operated solely from the energy that is created from solar.