Giving Middle East carriers unfettered access to Kenyan skies bad for local aviation industry

The open skies conversation has surfaced yet again. Proponents claim such a policy would resolve the country’s aviation industry challenges. This, they say, is by spurring an increase in tourist numbers by allowing foreign carriers unlimited access to Kenyan skies.

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines open skies as “a situation in which governments of different countries allow companies from those countries to offer air passenger services between each other.”

An open skies policy operates on the principle of reciprocity. Countries that granted frequencies to others must also allow others the same number of frequencies.

The UAE has up to 35 frequencies weekly in Kenya and is pushing to be allowed more. This is even as Kenya, through the national carrier Kenya Airways, is limited to just 10 weekly frequencies. Calls to add more frequencies and lucrative slots in Dubai have yet to yield any fruit.

Many Middle-eastern carriers are heavily subsidised by their governments and are thus able to offer premium services at unbeatable price points. Further, they have benefited from post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery efforts through generous exchequer support.

Take Emirates Airlines, for instance. Information from its annual report reveals that “the Emirates Group posted a loss of US 6 billion for the financial year ended 31st March 2021.”

This was on account of the suspension of passenger flights at its hub in March 2020 because of global travel restrictions. Yet the same report says “Emirates received a capital injection of US 3.1 billion from the Government of Dubai.”

Contrast that with Kenya Airways which is still struggling to bridge the gap in revenues occasioned by the same pandemic.

The government has offered some support though it is limited by its own pecuniary challenges. No doubt, giving Middle East carriers unfettered access to Kenyan skies in such an uneven playing field would be deleterious to Kenya’s local aviation industry.

There are reasons to grow Kenya’s local airlines. First, they offer employment opportunities to citizens on a scale that cannot be matched by foreign carriers. Kenya Airways employs 4,000 people directly, 16,000 others indirectly and up to 500,000 others in attendant industries.

Second, because most payments for aviation services are done in dollars, local carriers are big consolidators of the country’s much-needed foreign exchange.

Further to that, they pay taxes locally which are used for Kenya’s development agenda. Some sectors like tourism are direct beneficiaries of such taxes.

Third, local airlines are responsible for the development of the country’s large pool of talent in the aviation industry. It is not for nothing that foreign carriers like Etihad and Qatar have come calling, hunting for pilots, engineers and technicians, ground-handling personnel and cabin crew.

There are other ways to resolve Kenya’s aviation industry challenges. Passenger traffic numbers can be enhanced without necessarily having an open skies policy.

The most obvious way to achieve this is to increase the pool of passengers in and out of Kenya so that it matches the surfeit of passenger flights in the country.

Kenya has more than 30 airlines, most of them flying directly into the country from their points of origin. Closely related to this is the need to improve on the country’s tourism product offering so that there is sufficient incentive for repeat clients to patronise the country’s hotels and resorts.

Mr Khafafa is a public policy analyst