AFRAA Secretary General, Mr. Abdérahmane Berthe in a panel discussion at the 69th ACI Africa Conference on 1st March 2023 in Kigali on theme: “Financing Sustainable Aviation”, elaborated on the airlines’ perspective to achieve aviation industry Net Zero 2050 target. He highlighted actions under the following areas:
- Decarbonized Fleet
- Decarbonized Cabin
- Sustainable Ground operations
- Sustainable Flight Operations
Of significant impact to achieve sustainable fight operations is the AFRAA Free Routing Airspace (FRA) project that is among the 5 projects under the 2022 African aviation industry laboratory.
The FRA initiative beneficial outcomes to the African aviation industry include:
- Facilitate flights to operate along direct trajectories within Africa thus reduce the fuel burn
- Reduce airline operating costs.
- Boost flight operation efficiency on intra-Africa market and contribute to productivity gains of African airlines and air navigation service providers.
- Improve operational industry efficiency
- Improve intra-Africa connectivity
- Reduce CO2 emissions
Mr. Berthe further articulated on AFRAA AGA 54 Resolution on Environment which made a call on the following:
- Call to governments to commit to long term net zero emission goals without compromising the aviation growth potential in Africa.
- Call to AFRAA members to continue improving their operations’ efficiency to achieve sustained in sector emissions reductions and to support the transition to reliable cost competitive sustainable aviation fuel.
- All industry stakeholders to commit to addressing the environmental impact of their policies, products, and activities with concrete actions and clear timelines.
In support to implement the Resolution, AFRAA is engaging to mobilize resources to assist members through capacity building and knowledge sharing.