The African Airlines Association called on Nigeria and other signatory states to accelerate implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market, arguing on 10 November 2020 that faster liberalisation of intra-African routes would help the continent's airlines recover more quickly from the revenue losses inflicted by COVID-19 border closures.
A Pandemic Case for Open Skies
AFRAA Secretary General Abderahmane Berthe said African carriers had lost billions of dollars in revenue during 2020 as international and domestic flights were grounded for months, and argued that easier market access under SAATM would allow surviving airlines to build back traffic on underserved regional routes rather than relying solely on recovery of long-haul international demand.
Nigeria, one of SAATM's earlier signatories, had made only limited progress opening its market to other African carriers under the framework by the end of 2020, and AFRAA urged Abuja and fellow member states to use the pandemic recovery period as an opportunity to remove remaining bilateral restrictions and align on common safety and consumer-protection standards across the continent.