L News & Industry Affairs / AASA
L AASA News / 2022
In brief
- May 23, 2022. ACSA reports high passenger network recovery across all airports
- May 17, 2022. Weather service defends quality of its work despite headwinds
- May 12, 2022. African economic and air traffic growth surpasses global average
- May 9, 2022. Energy fund commits 1.5-million litres of fuel to address crisis at OR Tambo
- May 9, 2022. Emergency measures put in place to stabilise jet fuel supply at OR Tambo International Airport
- May 8, 2022. Emergency measures put in place to stabilise jet fuel supply at OR Tambo
- May 5, 2022. Tourism, travel industry has mixed feelings about new Covid regulations
- May 5, 2022. A guide to South Africa’s latest Covid-19 health regulations
- May 5, 2022. Mask-wearing indoors stays in place as SA Health Department extends C-19 regulations
- April 22, 2022. South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), National Aviation Conference 2022: Cleared for Take-off – The future outlook of aviation in South Africa
- April 4, 2022. South Africa’s COVID state of disaster to end at midnight -President Ramaphosa
- April 4, 2022. 750 days later, SA no longer under National State of Disaster
- March 22, 2022. SA embarking on a new era in fight against COVID, says Ramaphosa
- March 22, 2022. Outdoor mask-wearing scrapped, larger crowds permitted under revised restrictions
- March 14, 2022. AASA welcomes appointment of South Africa’s new air services
- March 11, 2022. [LISTEN] RADIO 702 INTERVIEW with Aaron Munetsi, CEO of AASA
- March 11, 2022. South Africa appoints new air services licensing councils after 12 months of inactivity
- March 10, 2022. SA has air services councils again after 12-month delay
- March 10, 2022. South African airlines welcome re-establishment of country’s essential air services councils
- March 10, 2022. SA has eventually got new air services councils – and now needs to clear a 12-month backlog
L / 2021
L AASA PRESS RELEASE
AASA urges governments to speed up vaccinations and provide relief to air travel and tourism sector in order to secure economic recovery
April 29, 2021. Johannesburg. The Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA), renewed its call for governments across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to accelerate vaccination programmes and to provide urgent financial relief to the entire air travel and tourism sector - regardless of ownership - without which economic recovery and future growth will be set back by years.
Airlines provide all-important social and economic connections throughout our region and around the world, but COVID-19, associated travel restrictions, the accompanying economic crisis and shifts in the way people are working, have been a devastating quadruple whammy for the entire airline industry, including domestic markets, of which South Africa’s is the largest in Africa.
Second waves of infections, the emergence of a new variant identified in South Africa and the very slow pace of the vaccination roll-out in the region have colluded to suppress confidence in the travel market. It has also meant that many foreign airlines are unable to carry passengers to and from our markets, including those who would connect with domestic flights. The effect has been to starve our domestic carriers of their traditional feeder business.
Chris Zweigenthal, AASA CEO
“At the same time, airlines still have to cover their fixed costs for items like aircraft financing, insurance, maintenance, office premises, staff salaries, recurrent training, IT systems, etc. No airlines are immune,” he added.
With these factors in mind, AASA is urging governments to provide desperately-needed financial support to airlines and other service providers in the air transport value chain on an ownership-agnostic basis, as has happened in most other regions around the world.
“While cash would be nice, the fiscal crunch that many of the region’s economies face is not lost on us, but governments have other levers at their disposal to assist the sector, such as exemptions on levies and statutory charges, deferring taxes, reducing airlines’ administrative burden and streamlining bureaucracy. Similarly, they should strengthen and broaden initiatives such as South Africa’s Tourism support fund which is inadequate given our sector’s significant social and economic contribution.
Because economic recovery is dependent on air transport connecting the region with its foreign trade and tourism markets, AASA is supporting efforts to enable governments in the region to replace arbitrary travel bans with standardised COVID-19 tests and to introduce secure tools for the validation of traveller’s test and vaccination status. This will enable Southern African and foreign travellers to safely fly to their desired destinations under the UN's WHO and ICAO jointly recommended and proven health and safety protocols that mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission by air travel.
“Standardisation is vital. It would be disastrous if every government developed its own set of standards and requirements. That would create confusion, unnecessary hassle and delay not only the recovery of air travel and tourism, but economies at large. That’s because air travel is intrinsic to the functioning of any modern and dynamic economy,” explained Zweigenthal. Download the press release [media outlets]...
Media queries:
Linden Birns – Plane Talking – PR & Media Relations Advisor to AASA
M: +27 82 568 8031 / T: +27 21 785 5610 / E: linden@icon.co.za