Mokgatlhe Calls For Further Liberalisation Of The Skies
Staff Writer | Monday November 16, 2015 14:44
Mokgatlhe was the guest speaker at the Aviation Pitso held last week where he called for further liberalisation of Botswana skies to create increases in air connectivity, demand and ensure long-term sustainability of the services. According to Mokgatlhe the long-term connectivity will ‘provide the commercial freedom necessary for airlines to adjust capacity appropriately to meet changes in market demand’.
Mokgatlhe said countries such as Poland and the UK have since 2003 had an increased connectivity as a proportion of the GDP by 27 percent for Poland and 0.5 percent for UK, which had already been well served.
The CEO noted that this will help unlock the aviation sector’s true potential in the country’s economic development. The potential being that aviation can integrate Botswana to the global economy through connections to the global air transport network and in the process provide access and links for Botswana businesses to global markets.
He said it is important to have the aviation and tourism sectors work in unison to achieve new ways of working that will also contribute to government’s Economic Diversification Drive (EDD).
To buttress this point, Mokgatlhe shared that governments in developing countries realised the benefits of tourism to their national economies and spurred the development of resorts and infrastructure such as aviation hubs to lure tourists from prosperous countries in Western Europe and North America.
Mokgatlhe noted that a Stanford University report observed that in the past decade air travel in both business and leisure travelling grew by seven percent annually. Further he noted that airlines carried 1.5 billion passengers last year.
Said Mokgatlhe: “The availability of large aircraft such as Boeing 747 has made it convenient and affordable for people to travel further to new and exotic destinations”.
He further said the industry is having to adjust to technological changes brought about by models such as the glass cockpit, composite materials and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), to name a few.
On security, Mokgatlhe commended the country for sticking to security procedures.
“Safety and security remains a great consideration in the aviation industry. åBotswana like other countries, continues to strive to make the skies safe for all concerned,” he said.
For his part, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communication, Neil Fitt said government has earmarked aviation as one of the sectors, which can immensely contribute to the economy. He said the potential of the sector can be best demonstrated in Maun, the busiest airport in the country where the aviation sector is playing a part in the development of the local economy.
Fitt said in an effort to turn Botswana into a tourism hub government expanded the Sir Seretse Khama Airport, Francistown Airport while the works on Maun and Kasane airports are still ongoing.