Window Seat, the regular Aviation Week Air Transport podcast hosted by its Europe and Africa Bureau Chief, Victoria Moores, recently interviewed Adefunke Adeyemi, the new Secretary General of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC). The interview covered a range of SAATM-related issues.

Extracts from comments by Adefunke Adeyemi:

Well, there’s 35 countries that have signed up to it. Since the time that the SAATM was initiated in 2018, I think there were 11 champion states who signed up at the time. And since then, up to now, there are 35 countries that have signed up. And that’s really wonderful. Of course, we’re advocating for more states to sign up so that we can have the maximum penetration as possible. But those 35 states actually already represent 90% of the aviation air traffic market. And so we can move forward on the basis of the 35. But one of the things we’re thinking about also is how can we break it up into just in a manageable way? It could seem a bit daunting to have all 35 states trying to do the same thing at the same time. And so one of the ways to sort of break that up is to start with a pilot phase for the implementation of SAATM out of the 35 countries, to pilot it amongst a few who we call ‘the CREW,’ the countries and carriers that are ready, eligible and willing to participate in the SAATM.

And we have already identified a few of those and we’ll be rolling out an implementation plan very quickly. But to your other point, Victoria, one of the real reasons why we haven’t seen breakthrough in the liberalization story of Africa is because largely of fear. And I think fear is couched in the word protectionism, where many states and carriers have felt that their place was going to be displaced. Because if we opened up the market to everyone, then it would be a real challenge for them and for their markets and economic disadvantage, as you had said already. But the reality is that, and there’s enough proof of this around the world, is that opening up markets is really a boost for economic development. It is also a great accelerator for integration, and we have examples all over the world. But the potential for Africa, which is the note on which I’ll end, is huge. Beyond the fact that it’ll help with raising standards to international level, whether it’s safety or security and across other standards, it will do amazing things for the continent of Africa and for its people.

Note: The Aviation Week podcast and transcript, posted with acknowledgement to Aviation Week, can be accessed here.