On the 9th March 2022, the Kingdom of Morocco signed the Revised Constitution of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) and the Memorandum of Implementation (MoI) of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM). The signing Ceremony organized by the African Union Commission through its Office of the Legal Counsel, was witnessed by H.E Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy and H.E Nezha Alaoui M’hammdi, Ambassador and Representative of the Kingdom of Morocco to the AU.
Currently, 35 AU Member States with a total population of more than 800 million people, accounting for 61% of the population on the African continent and 89% of intra-African air transport market have joined SAATM and have opened up their markets to each other, removing restrictions in terms of frequency, capacity and granting to each other traffic rights and this will enable intra-African transport connectivity and support improvement of trade and tourism.
By signing the SAATM Memorandum of Implementation (MOI) the countries commit to revise all their Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs) with other African countries to make them compliant to the provisions of the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) for full liberalization of air transport services.
During the signing ceremony, H.E Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy mentioned that Fast tracking the operationalization of the SAATM remains one of the priorities of the AU Commission, not only to support the restart and recovery after COVID-19 pandemic but to reposition African aviation sector to a renewed path to achieve a sustainable air transport system that will enable the socio-economic integration of our continent.
The following 35 AU Member States have signed the solemn commitment to implement the SAATM: Benin, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Eswatini, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Union (AU).
