Rights to our airspace should not be doled out without benefits

Airspace is a resource. And like any other precious resource, it must be protected by countries. Article 1 of the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation says, “Every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory including its territorial sea.”

A country grants access to its airspace according to the nine freedoms of the air. These freedoms offer rights to one country to another’s airspace in varying degrees. Most restrictions are considered lifted after the fifth freedom of the air with airlines allowed to pick and drop off passengers and cargo between two countries. However, these rights are not absolute and are subject to Bilateral Air Service Agreements (Basas). Basas are by nature reciprocal arrangements between countries. Rights given by one country must be reciprocated by the other.

Kenya is arguably one of the finest aviation hubs in Africa. Geographically, it is smack in the middle of the continent. This enables it to serve as a great transit point for passengers from all ends of the continent. Freighters also use it as a staging ground for both changes of crew and refuelling. Kenya is blessed with glorious weather all year round. It does not have visibility issues created by fog like some countries in the region. Nor is it buffeted by unfavourable winds that make landing a challenge. In addition, the country is both a source and a destination. Several international organisations have their headquarters in Nairobi. It makes the city a great source of aviation traffic. The country ranks as one of the finest destinations for beach and safari tourism.

It is for the aforementioned reasons that many international carriers desire a slice of Kenya’s lucrative airline business. Middle-eastern carriers have been particularly aggressive in seeking traffic rights. Currently, Kenya has Basas with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). However, the reciprocity expected as a matter of right in such Basas doesn’t seem to be evident. It seems the arrangement is skewed in favour of the UAE.

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Currently, the UAE has 25 frequencies per week to Nairobi and Mombasa. These are divided between Emirates Airlines, Fly Dubai and Etihad. Kenya only has 10 weekly frequencies to Dubai. The UAE is now pushing for an additional seven frequencies for Emirates and four for Etihad bringing the total to 36 per week. Yet this is with zero reciprocation so the national carrier Kenya Airways (KQ) is stuck with just 10 frequencies.

This skewed arrangement not only undermines the principle of reciprocity, which is the essence of Basas, but also threatens to upend KQ and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport’s status as one of the continent’s premier hubs. The myopic view would be to look at the proliferation of these carriers from the Middle East as an increase in capacity or great competition leading to lower fares. That would hold true in a situation where the playing field was level.

But it is not. It is an acknowledged fact that Middle Eastern carriers are heavily subsidised by their governments. Further, capacity dumping, practised by airlines that have idle wide-bodied planes, has national security implications in the long run. Rights to our airspace should not be doled out to other countries without any reciprocal benefits.

Mr Khafafa is a public policy analyst