JUNE DEADLINE FOR KCAA TO SIGN AVIATION DEALS OR ELSE
(Posted 07th May 2015)
Following a meeting of a group of technical experts in Kigali last week, ahead of the next ministerial and Head of State summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects countries Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Kenya were the Kenyan regulators directed to complete their pending BASA, short for bilateral air services agreement, with their counterparts from the Republic of Rwanda, failure of which they will be named and shamed at the next summit. The Kenyan regulators, notorious for erecting a Berlin Wall against third country airlines, took months to eventually and reluctantly approve the fifth freedom RwandAir flights from Entebbe to Nairobi and vice versa, which the Ugandan CAA had approved. After failing to give consent did it take a Head of State directive in December to complete the deal and still did KCAA staffers show obstinate reluctance to give RwandAir full access, capping the capacity at the start of the flights which launched in late January. At the time was it noted by the media representatives present at the launch in Nairobi’s EKA Hotel that KCAA staff swiftly disappeared after emptying their champagne glasses and bagging their gifts, avoiding and evading questions by the media over their pathetic behaviour against a fellow ‘Coalition of the Willing’ country.
Any remaining issues from that stalling tactic must now be concluded by mid of June, and a bilateral meeting between RCAA and KCAA is reportedly scheduled for later in May.
Part of the multilateral deal will also be a mechanism to resolve arising disputed swiftly and not drag them on for months, which in the past resulted in airlines being blocked from flying additional and in particular fifth freedom services from one country through the next to a third one.
Rwanda in the meantime is going ahead to ratify their BASA with South Sudan even though the South Sudanese parliament has failed to play its part, mostly attributed to the ongoing conflict, lack of funds for sitting allowances and transport for members of parliament and, as and when parliament in Juba meets, other higher priority items on the agenda.
The ultimate aim is to reduce bureaucrazy, pun intended, and lower the cost of air transport among the four countries so that air travel can become more affordable for wider sections of society.
