Zambia’s aviation sector growing
Published On June 3, 2015 » 2559 Views» By Administrator Times » Opinion
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ZAMBIA’S aviation sector has continued to grow over the years and continued its contribution to the growth of the economy.
This is despite the fact that the country has not had a national airline since the collapse of Zambia Airways.
Despite the odds, the country’s aviation sector has grown from muscle-muscle over the years and several players have emerged over the years, with some going under, but the momentum of growth has been maintained.
To attest to this scenario, a leading global aviation analysis company, OAG Aviation has ranked Proflight Zambia, as the fastest growing local airline in southern Africa.
The airline’s capacity has almost doubled in the last five years, showing a growth of 89.8 per cent by capacity from 2010 to 2014 within and from the southern Africa region.
Established in 1991 Proflight was ranked third, after air-power houses such as Ethiopian Airlines and Turkish Airlines, with Emirates in fourth place, followed by Mango and KLM.
Several challenges currently face the aviation industry in Africa making it lag behind those of the rest of the world in the same sphere Proflight Zambia has managed to fly past some of these hurdles to show that there is great potential in the Zambian aviation sector.
Nonetheless, demand for air transport has increased steadily over the past years with passenger numbers and freight traffic growing by 45 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimates that over the past five year period, Africa will be the third fastest growing region in the world in terms of international traffic with an average growth rate of 6.1 per cent compared to the global average of 5.8 per cent, and 7.9 per cent and 6.9 per cent for the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Europe, Latin America and North America are projected to record lower international passenger growth of 5.0 per cent, 5.8 per cent and 4.9 per cent, respectively.
This trend is expected to continue in the coming years due to a number of factors, notably robust economic growth, demographic boom, increasing urbanization, and emergence of the middle class.
Air transportation plays a vital role in the country’s growth process by accelerating convergence of goods and persons.
The contribution of air transport far exceeds that of road transportation sevenfold.
Growth in air transportation has direct maps into economic growth due to spill-over effects through creation of direct and indirect jobs in the industry and other auxiliary sectors such as tourism and other service sectors.
Expansion in air transportation creates market opportunities for local entrepreneurs by creating regional and global economic centers.
Aviation experts’ forecasts indicate that the aviation industry’s impact on African economies is set to grow over the next 20 years with job creation by the industry being projected at 879,000.
With economic growth being favourable and being aided by a good investment climate, Zambia’s aviation industry can race against giants of the sector and improve derive benefits from a flourishing airline industry.
Clearly the airline industry has enough room to cater for new entrants and it is important that investment is pushed into this area so as to maximise benefits.
In recent weeks, various economic stakeholders have advised that the country needs to diversify its economy and the aviation sector is one area that can be tapped.
With plans of a national airline still in the pipeline, the investment environment is lucrative for the private sector to establish their business as seen by the efforts recorded by Proflight and others already in existence.
Amidst the praise to Proflight, it is evident that the aviation sector is still screaming for more investment and so government and related players are duty bound to make this happen as the benefits maximised from this venture are huge and will contribute greatly to economic emancipation. OPINION

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