European airlines dominating African services. Algeria calls for intra-African liberalisation

Algeria's Minister of Transport, Amar Tou, at the 19th Annual African Aviation Conference and Exhibition, noted that major European carriers, including British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, are generating significant revenues from their respective African services (All Africa, 25-Mar-2010). He added that while the carriers are generating revenues in excess of USD4 billion from these services, they are devising "stringent" regulations (including emissions laws) and "untenable" safety conditions to prevent many African airlines from operating to Europe. Mr Tou called for increased cooperation among African airlines to react to this scenario, including the ratification of the Yamoussoukro Decision which, if ratified, would open the region's airspace to inter-city operations in any part of the continent by any airline from the continent.