There are a lot to learn from the Aviation Africa 2017 forum

By Jumia Travel Tanzania

On 22nd and 23rd of February, 2017 in Kigali, Rwanda, was held the second Aviation Africa Forum attended by about 500 delegates from the aviation industry. The first one was conducted in Dubai on May 2015.

The President of Rwanda, Hon. Paul Kagame who was a guest of honor in the forum, said that his country has stepped up efforts to achieve the common aviation market in Africa, opening up its skies, and is working very closely with partner states. He believes that apart from the aviation industry benefiting from that forum, it will also positively impact the ventures which depend on the sector.

Among the issues discussed during Aviation Africa are such as liberalizing the African airspace so as to upgrade running conditions for African airlines, and simplify movement of people across the continent.   

It’s obvious that the aviation sector is very crucial to any community despite how challenging it is investing in it. Therefore, apart from other developing countries in Africa and the world in general, even in Tanzania there is an increasing number of people using flights services.

There are many reasons which promote growth of aviation industry such as tourism, both domestic and international, increasing in number of investors as well as rise of economy of middle class who can afford services.

Jumia Travel as among the stakeholders in travel and tourism in Tanzania and Africa in general, sees that there is need to bring airline services from different companies into one place. Earlier last week, the company which provides online hotel booking services introduced flight services on its platform. Functioning as the same as hotel booking, this new service will make it easy for travellers to find all the airline companies at one website, compare, and book flights, as well as buy air tickets online from different companies.

By determining where the Aviation industry in Africa is heading, we must create good travelling conditions for travellers so as to encourage its growth.

These initiatives must be supported by airline companies in Tanzania, as at the end of the day their customers also will benefit.

Therefore, when delegates from the aviation industry met last week in Rwanda, they made it clear that apart from facilitating easy movement of people on the continent, the sector would go a long way in spurring economic growth in Africa. Moreover, it will also create more job opportunities; employing among others pilots, engineers, designers, and business analysts.

Increase in demand among customers of a certain service is the main driving force for service providers to be more innovative. And this might be a reason for stakeholders from other sectors to meet regularly and discuss challenges they are facing on common grounds and how to deal with them.