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Are you African Flying?
By Kweku Asare, ACCRA
Accra, June 13, Ghanadot.com - Mr Oteng Gyasi, President of
the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) at a recent
workshop organised by the Institute of Financial and
Economic Journalists recounted a situation where travellers
on flights from Europe and other parts of the world, except
from Africa have such free movement and access through US
airports.
Indeed, you will realise that whenever you fly into any US
airport, JFK, Baltimore, Washington DC and London, you have
so many immigration officers swooping over to check you and
recheck you. However, amazingly you do not have such
problems when you fly into any, or the listed airports above
from another European city or any of the US airports.
Are there any reasons why fares for flights into Europe and
America from Africa are four to five times higher airfares
than passengers from Europe, Asia and the Middle-East for
the same duration of flights?
Reading an article recently in a local Daily, “The Accra
Daily Mail” (ADM) said , “it was apparent that the
prohibitive airfares are actually to limit African
passengers from crossing frontiers where they can explore
personally environments so far denied them under immigration
laws.
Also, the veneer of the language of public relation used by
these airlines has fitted very well, according to the ADM
with the sordid hypocrisy no one should wonder now that free
circulation of persons, free trade and globalization are but
meaningless statements shown to be false not in some but in
all respects.
African passengers for cross-Atlantic flights pay between 1
200 to 2200 dollars for economy passengers while these fares
would have been First Class between North America and
Europe. Fares between North America and Europe can be as low
as 200 just dollars! Can you believe this? Could it be that
we in and from Africa are just not good enough and we cannot
do anything to change our situation? Not even our leaders?
According to the report, it will be spurious for anyone to
talk about market forces since as many as 30 cities in
Africa and to name a few: Dakar, Banjul, Freetown, Monrovia,
Accra, Lagos, Abuja, Douala, Bamako, Libreville, Addis
Ababa, Kampala, Nairobi, Mombassa, Harare, Luanda, Maputo,
Johannesburg serve as gateways to as much as 200 million
potential customers. That is, only if they were not
Africans!
For me it is most sordid that considering the poverty levels
in Africa, the little money we work hard to get finds its
way out of the continent in such ways that we willingly give
out.
Ever wondered why European, American and North American
airlines have daily flights to and from Ghana and other
African cities?
Let our governments, Ministers among others examine the
situation and esnure that we do not just fall for such high
exhorbitant fares that only drain us and make us tools for
these airlines.
Kweku Asare, June 13, 2007, Ghanadot.com
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