On 23rd and 24th November the 41st AFRAA AGA was held at Maputo, Mozambique, with the participation of more than 20 airline CEO’s. The theme of this year AGA was: “Succeeding in Challenging times”. In his keynote address the President of Mozambique, Armando Guebuza, put the emphasis on the fact that crisis is not something that the air transport industry should be afraid of or draw back from but on the contrary, a crisis can become an opportunitiy to challenge ourselves. He also added that air transport was, has been and is a catalyst of economic growth.
Mr Geoffrey Moshabesha, ICAO Regional Director, stated that the focus of the organization is on safety, security and economic liberalization. IATA RVP, Lance Brogden, added that all parties need to work together.
Christian Folly-Kossi in his last report as Secretary General of AFRAA made an overview of his contribution to the African air transport industry. His report began with a description of the state of the industry and a statement that the African airline industry has been adversely affected by the global recession although the effect has been more limited than elsewhere. He continued by adding that from 2003 total passenger numbers to and from Africa were steadily rising until 2007 but in 2008, there was a marginal drop of about 4% in passenger numbers as a result of the world economic recession. On the financial side African airlines are expected to lose around 300 USD for 2008, which is mainly due to the high fuel costs. For 2009 the estimate loss is 0.5 billion USD. In 2009 two airlines became members of AFRAA, Rwanda Air and Zambezi Airlines.
Source: Air Transport News
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