LIBERALISATION AND THE SPATIO-TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF AIR TRANSPORTATION IN WEST AFRICA

Abstract

Liberalisation policy has influenced global air transport significantly. In Africa, the liberalisation of the air transport sector, through the Yamoussoukro agreement; was signed in 1988. The liberalisation process was aimed at removing air travel restrictions and setbacks to regional flows, which were imposed by Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA), and improve passenger, cargo and aircraft movements. Since the implementation of the liberalisation policy, however, there has been limited attempt to analyse its impact on the spatial structure of origin - destination flow from Nigeria to other West African countries. This study, was designed to examine the changes in the spatio-temporal patterns and the challenges in the pre and post-liberalisation eras.

The Spatial Interaction and Transport Network Models, and Contestability theory provided the framework, while survey design was adopted. A structured questionnaire was administered to 428 purposively selected respondents who have travelled on the regional route from Lagos and Abuja in the pre and post-liberalisation eras. The questionnaire elicited information on the socio-economic characteristics (sex, age, income, marital status, educational status and nationality), air travel characteristics (flight availability, trip patterns, baggage handling, immigration and security procedures) and the travel challenges. Longititudinal data on passenger and aircraft flows were obtained from the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and the ECOWAS Commission for pre (1988-2000) and post-liberalisation (2001-2011) eras. Alpha index (route and network), t-test, Pearson correlation and paired t-test analyses were used at p≤0.05.

There were 64.3% males and 35.7% females; 67.3% were Nigerians, 17.3% Ghanaians, 13.3% other West Africans and 1.6% non West Africans. The percentage of travellers who made one, two and three trips per month changed from 72.9%, 25.5% and 1.6% in pre liberalisation to 0.5%, 55.8% and 24.1% in post-liberalisation respectively. Also, 19.6% made more than three trips to other West African countries per month. Passengers challenges varied from entry restriction (28.7%), inadequate aviation infrastructure (24.5%) and low capacity (23.8%) during pre liberalisation era while weak regional intervention (22.4%), policy mismatch (20.1%) and inadequate linkages (19.9%) were identified during the post-liberalisation era. The air transport configuration has changed from simple linear point-to-point in pre liberalisation to a hub and spoke structure in the post-liberalisation era. The routes and networks index increased from 0.297 in the pre liberalisation era to 0.334 in the post-liberalisation era, hence the route and network connectivity had been enhanced in the post-liberalisation era. There were significant differences in the total volume of passenger movement (t=3.028) and aircraft movement (t=2.992) in the pre and post-liberalisation eras. There was a significant positive relationship between aircraft and passenger movements in pre (r=0.629) and in post-liberalisation (r=0.970) eras. In the post-liberalisation era, the paired mean difference between passenger departure and arrival flows ( =-38459.90) was significant (t=6.410).

Liberalisation has influenced the spatial linkages of air traffic from Nigeria to other West African countries since liberalisation era as passenger and aircraft movements improved significantly. However, there is the need to increase infrastructure capacity, strengthen regional policy framework and connectivity in the sub-region.

Keywords: Yamoussoukro agreement, Bilateral Air Service Agreement, Air transportation in West Africa

Word count: 497