A region of 300 million people. Fewer than 7.2 million passengers in the air annually. The disconnect is staggering — and it’s not because people don’t want to fly.
Across Southern Africa, tourism ambitions remain stifled not by demand but by policy paralysis. At the recent SADC Tourism Alliance Think Tank, aviation and tourism leaders came together to address a hard truth: despite public commitments to liberalised skies under the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), national policies, political gatekeeping, and fragmented governance continue to ground regional air access.
The promise of SAATM — a unified, competitive, and affordable air transport market — remains more of a theoretical ideal than a regional reality. And that gap is costing Southern Africa growth, connectivity and jobs.
Open Skies, Closed Policies
“We’ve got the commitments,” said George Mothema, representative of the Board of Airline Representatives of South Africa (BARSA). “What we don’t have is implementation.”
Mothema highlighted that while countries like South Africa have adopted civil aviation policies, many still entrench protectionist elements that directly contradict SAATM’s principles. The result is a region where airlines — particularly private ones — are blocked from expanding viable routes, and governments continue to favour under-capitalised national carriers over more agile players.
“Most state carriers have downsized. They’re not in a position to compete or benefit under SAATM without recapitalisation — and that’s not happening,” Mothema noted. Meanwhile, more capable private airlines often hit invisible political ceilings.
FlySafair’s experience on the Johannesburg–Harare route provides a telling case study. When the airline entered the market, it halved ticket prices — and demand surged.
“It’s a fantastic route. It performs incredibly well,” said Kirby Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer at FlySafair. “We’d love to put on a second daily service. But we can’t. Why not? Politics.”
That single example captures a broader issue: suppressed demand is not theoretical — it’s measurable. What’s missing is the political will to unlock it. Even South Africa — one of the continent’s most connected countries — is limited by scale. FlySafair, Africa’s fourth-largest carrier by passenger volume, operates just 36 Boeing 737-800s. By contrast, Southwest Airlines in the U.S. operates nearly 700 of the same aircraft.
“Scale gives them everything,” Gordon said. “In our market, even the biggest operators are small by global standards.”
Tourism Alone Can’t Fix This — It Needs Allies in Power
The tourism sector is often at the mercy of other portfolios — transport, home affairs, treasury — when it comes to enabling access. And too often, those stakeholders don’t see tourism as a strategic economic driver.
“Tourism doesn’t feature highly in national policy,” said Lee-Anne Bac, Advisory Director and Head of Strategy and Sustainability at BDO South Africa. “Political players don’t really understand tourism, or what we’re trying to achieve.”
She pointed to the Cape Town Air Access initiative as a rare success story of multisectoral collaboration. “It brought together investment promotion agencies, tourism bodies, the private sector, and the airport company. That kind of model shouldn’t be the exception — it should be the norm.”
Beyond collaboration, what’s missing most is enforceable accountability. “If you’re going to be the custodian of tourism, aviation or transport, we need to put you on the spot and ask: what are you going to achieve?” said Aaron Munetsi, CEO of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA).
He proposed a practical, results-based framework for reform:
- Create national baselines for air access barriers — including taxes, permit friction, and operating costs.
- Commit to incremental reductions (even 5% could be transformative).
- Build a regional scorecard that monitors real policy delivery.
“Reducing airline operating costs isn’t just a sectoral goal — it’s an economic one,” said Munetsi. “The business of airlines is the backdrop on which we are building our economies.”
Air Access Is Economic Infrastructure — Not Just a Travel Issue
One of the most important shifts, speakers agreed, is conceptual. Aviation cannot be seen solely through the lens of transport or tourism. It is core economic infrastructure — as critical as broadband, roads, or energy.
“Our Civil Aviation Policy is not just a transport policy. It is an economic policy,” said Mothema. If that principle is accepted, it demands investment, policy coherence, and prioritisation at the highest levels of government.
“Tourism can’t do this alone,” Bac added. “Aviation must be recognised as a catalyst for national and regional economic development.”
If Southern Africa is serious about unlocking its full tourism and trade potential, it must stop treating air access as an aspirational goal — and start treating it as a structural reform project.
That means:
- Breaking down protectionist policies and opening routes to viable operators.
- Investing in airline scalability — whether public or private.
- Building cross-ministerial alliances that treat air access as infrastructure.
- Tracking and publicly reporting progress with a shared regional scorecard.
“In a region of 300 million people, flying should not be a luxury or a political favour,” said Bac. “It should be a lever for growth. But we can’t build that future without building the policies, partnerships, and platforms to support it.”
Until Southern Africa aligns its aviation policies with its economic ambitions, tourism will remain grounded in untapped potential. The demand is there. The business case is clear. Now it’s time for delivery.