▪ Honourable Minister of Air Transport and Tourism of Senegal ▪ President of AFCAC Bureau ▪ President of ICAO ▪ Interim Secretary General of AFCAC ▪ Distinguished participants ▪ All Protocols observed

1. Greetings from Lusaka where the AU Executive Council and Summit are taking place. Thank you for inviting me to share with you a few thoughts on this 34th Extraordinary Session of the AFCAC Plenary.
2. I wish to thank the Republic of Senegal for hosting this meeting. I wish also to congratulate the new AFCAC Bureau.
3. I note that the Extraordinary Plenary will appoint AFCAC Secretary General. Please rest assured of AUC’s continued support to AFCAC — past, current and upcoming teams. I wish to also thank regional and international partners for their technical and financial support to AFCAC.
4. I wish to recognise my sister Angeline Simana who for ably steering AFCAC as Interim Secretary General since last year and congratulate the whole team for the preparation of this important plenary session as well as for excellent work in coordinating African position papers to be considered by the 41^st ICAO General Assembly scheduled to start in September 2022.

Distinguished participants,

Brothers and sisters

5. I am thrilled to see our planes taking off, our flights full and our airports crowded again with traffic gradually reaching or even exceeding the pre-pandemic levels.

Africa’s total international air connectivity in May 2022 was 93% of pre-crisis levels and international air connectivity for May 2022 is 77% of pre-crisis levels. In addition to that, air cargo, which was a key lifeline for vaccines, supply chains, and airline revenues throughout the COVID-19 crisis, has grown to be an even more vital contributor to Airline revenues.

6. This is coming off after profound impacts and losses amounting to 40-50 billion USD in 2021. And about 10 billion USD more in losses in 2022. We are all hoping for profitability in 2023.
7. I wish to express sincere and high gratitude to all and all stakeholders of African air transport for solidarity and resilience and our high level of coordination despite one of the worst crises the industry has ever faced.

Thank you, sisters, and brothers!

8. I know that the world is going through unsettling times over the conflict in Europe. Africa is experiencing already negative consequences of this conflict when our aviation industry is already in a delicate stage of recovery.
9. The current crisis has certainly brought rising fuel costs; soaring prices and inflation are discouraging African travelers. Higher fares affect demand, as we all know.

10. Yet, we will navigate through this storm together and even turn the challenge into an opportunity. When I see disruption of some non-African airlines and airports, in my head I say I hope we are acting quickly to expand our route network to fill those gaps and address the logistical challenges by improving passengers’ experience. This is the time for us to shine!

Distinguished participants,

Brothers and sisters

11. The whole globe is also trying to curb global warming which results in devastating climatic disasters on our Continent.

12. We are responsible stewards of planet Earth. As such, our African civil aviation industry is required to do more to contribute to the global climate agenda and sustainable development. I was happy and encouraged to know about the ecofriendly EgyptAir flights abandoning the use of single-use plastics.

13. We need to do more and faster. One important aspect is cleaner fuel and reduction of pollution of all sorts. I am sure we are working with our international partners to explore and implement sustainable air transport measures.

14. As Africa is preparing to host the COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh Egypt later this year, the ongoing efforts by AFCAC to finalise the continental aviation environmental protection plan is key to ensuring our Aviation sector is not left behind in the efforts to reduce and subsequently eliminate the CO2 emissions from Transport.

Distinguished participants,

Brothers and sisters

15. I wish also to bring back two issues into the picture:

16. The first is inclusiveness: gender diversity and youth dynamism spur economic growth and promote equity and development. There is a need to make our aviation industry more gender and age equitable and balanced by Investing in women and youth as multipliers of productivity, profitability as well as sustainability. Concrete actions throughout our air transport value chain must take place now to remove hurdles and to train and develop more women and youth in our industry.

17. The second is digitization. Digital tools and technologies have been proven indispensable to countries and travellers' safety and health under COVID. We should not forget that and fall into old ways and business as usual. We should push even more to digitalise all documents, and all processes and make airports and flights safe and smart.

18. It is important to strengthen linkages between aviation, health, inclusiveness, digitalisation, safety and security and energy sectors and not to forget: to harmonise all the above across Africa to integrate our Continent, unlock intra-regional market potentials, increase our air carrier competitiveness and facilitate trade within the context of SAATM and the AfCFTA.

Distinguished participants,

Brothers and sisters

19. Speaking of SAATM, fast-tracking the operationalisation and implementation of SAATM has been one of our topmost priorities since 2020, in order not only to support the restart and recovery of the industry after the COVID-19 pandemic but to also reposition the African aviation sector on a renewed path that will enable the socio-economic integration of our continent.

20. I wish here to reiterate our commitment to engage all our partners to support AFCAC in this critical period of not just the recovery of the air transport industry but also of new beginnings. AUC will spare no effort to mobilise assistance to AFCAC, as we did in these past years, to support various components of the SAATM prioritized action plan.

21. One of these priorities is to address the issue of the high cost of air transport on the continent. While our aviation industry seeks to recover, it has to be affordable to Africans and competitive with other modes of transport to facilitate intra-African trade and free movement of people and goods. The study undertaken by AFCAC talks about African aviation taxes, fees and charges.

22. Continuing on the priorities under SAATM, I am happy to report that the Dispute Settlement Mechanism has been adopted a few weeks ago by the Ministers of the African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Transport, Transcontinental and Interregional Infrastructure and Energy (STC-TTIIE) and is expected to be adopted by the Executive Council this week. This Dispute Settlement Mechanism will assist to address any disputes related to the application and interpretation of the provisions of the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) and SAATM implementation.

Distinguished participants,

Brothers and sisters

23. Before ending, let me highlight the importance of the upcoming 41st ICAO Assembly where once again we must continue to strengthen the African voice in civil aviation; our voice must be present; our voice must be heard. Let us all rally together to ensure the successful election of African candidates to the ICAO Council.

24. I am calling upon all the African countries and all regional and international partners, to fully support the African air industry, AUC, and AFCAC in delivering our mandate not only for mobility but also for integration and the health and prosperity of all Africans of our Africa and also for sustainability and safety of the Globe.

 I thank you