Get Draft Regulatory Texts Yd En.pdf - African Union

For the purposes of this book, "open skies" refers to a bilateral or multilateral air service agreement that liberalizes the rules for international aviation markets and minimizes government intervention. It can apply to passenger or cargo services or both, for both scheduled and charter air services.

On the other hand, domestic airlines are usually ill-disposed towards the open skies policy pursued by their governments because it leads to competitive expansion and makes inefficient local airlines reform themselves, adopt more flexible pricing policy and improve the quality of their services.

This 2010 World Bank study explains how liberalized air transport would deliver improved safety, lower fares, and increase traffic in Africa.

The Yamoussoukro Decision is a treaty adopted by most members of the African Union (AU) which establishes a framework for the liberalization of air transport services between African countries, as well as fair competition between airlines.

The AU vision as codified in the Yamoussoukro Decision of 1999 is for the full liberalization of air transport in Africa and the relaxation of non-physical barriers to the movement of persons, goods and services. When these two goals are achieved, the socio-economic benefits to the African continent will be enormous.