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8
Routes
DURBAN
Daily
Issue 02
Monday
21 September 2015
Produced by:
World Routes
Strategy Summit – Day 1
The Strategy Summit welcome address was given by Edward Senzo
Mchunu MPL, Premier of the Province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Durban
is the biggest city in KZN though Pietermaritzburg is the capital of
the Province. According to the Premier, where once “all roads led to
Johannesburg, now all roads led to Durban.” Expressing the hope that
delegates would get the chance to get to know “the warmest people
in South Africa”, and enjoy some of the great attractions of the region,
including the Moses Mabhida Stadium and its SkyCar experience and
Kruger National Park, which features all of the ‘big 5’ game species
(buffalos, elephants, leopards, lions and rhinos) the Premier wished the
event every success.
According to Angela Gittens,
Director General of ACI
World, Africa is ready for
the next stage in its aviation
development, backed up
by a variety of statistics
showing how different
parts of the continent are
evolving in different areas
such as transportation and
telecommunications. In
addition, according to Air Transport Action Group, in 2012 aviation in
Africa was responsible for employing 428,00 people in aviation jobs
as well as a further two million in induced and indirect employment.
Derek Hanekom, the Minister of Tourism for the Republic of South Africa gave
a lively welcome address covering a wide variety of topics. According to ACI
statistics passenger numbers at airports worldwide rose by almost 6% to over
6.7 billion but demand at airports across Africa rose by less than 3% to 180
million. The minister bemoaned lack of liberalization across Africa and the need
to reduce taxes and fees that were burdening airlines. However, he offered the
hope that “Africa can learn from how other regions have developed their air
services”, and should avoid repeating mistakes made elsewhere. He went on,
“six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa, but we have
poor intra-African connectivity, which is costly.” In addition, only 20% of traffic
into Africa is flying on African carriers, a figure which has fallen significantly
in recent decades. He also confessed frustration that the Yamoussoukro
Declaration, drawn up as long ago as 1988 to encourage aviation liberalisation
in Africa, had not been more effectively implemented across the continent.
The first day of
the World
Routes Strategy
Summit, sponsored by
Oman Airports Manage-
ment Company and
DiscoverAmerica.com
took place on Sunday.
The two-day event will
see a total of eight panel
sessions plus keynote
speeches, one-on-one
interviews and
individual presentations
covering a wide variety
of aviation-related
topics covering most
parts of the globe.
Yesterday’s panel
sessions looked at: State
of the Industry, Airline
Challenges & Growth
Concerns, The Changing
Business of Airports, and
Best Practices: How To
Attract More Passengers
and Tourists. Today’s
panel sessions will cover
the rise of the Middle
East carriers, growth in
Africa, air service
development issues and
new trends in travel
technology. The sessions
are open to all delegates.
