WHITE PAPER
FOCUS AREA 3: Setting out a strategic framework for reopening of air travel and creation of new air routes within the continent i) Reopening of air travel within Africa to enable regional collaboration and promote business events tourism According to the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), Africa is home to over 1.2Â billion people with a huge geographical spread that is largely land-locked. Given the lack of robust alternative infrastructure across the continent (road, rail, water), aviation is the most effective way to get around the continent. After Covid-19 caused most African governments to institute airspace closures and implemented travel restrictions. These initiatives had an adverse impact across many sectors of the tourism industry in the first half of 2020. As such, African governments should view public health as a key component of a resilient aviation transportation system, much like safety and security. Because air travel remains essential in any plans to reopen the business events and tourism sector, it is critical to adopt protocols that protect the health and safety of crew members, ground staff and passengers while ensuring that flight operations can continue.
As in the case of safety and security where stakeholders do not compete, expectations are that the aviation industry will be encouraged to take similar steps to implement guidance on public health risk mitigations, particularly in relation to Covid-19 safety protocols. For instance, governments could collaborate on measures around the testing of incoming and outgoing travellers, a track and trace programme that is secured against privacy and anonymised, and provision of proof of medical cover from travellers when travelling between countries on the continent. The framework for implementing public health measures in the aviation sector to minimise the risk of Covid-19 transmission during travel in the air transportation system should focus on the fundamentals of safety and security, promotion of public health within the air transportation system, and recognise aviation as a driver of economic recovery. To achieve this, the protocols must consider education and communication across the entire stakeholder spectrum including both passengers and aviation employees. (See Annexure 3: BARSA health safety protocols). Aviation operations encompass a wide variety of business models, and as such where possible, collaboration should stipulate where public health measures need to be flexible to ensure that the range of airline and airport operational strategies remain viable and support economic recovery, and
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