The planned implementation of 25% reduction in the passenger service, security charges is expected to increase travel traffic within the region by 40%, ECOWAS Director of Transport, Chris Appiah has said.
Appiah argued that the reduction will help change the narratives in the air transportation ecosystem where no airport within the region is the top eight in the continent despite having the highest airfare in the globe.
He also revealed that no West African airline is in the top seven ranking in the continent which can be attributed to the unfriendly business environment.
Appiah spoke on the sideline at the ongoing 6th Legislature: Delocalised meeting of Joint Committee of Infrastructure, Energy and Mines, Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources in Lome, Togo with the theme: “Air Transport as a Means of Integration for West African Peoples: A Strategy for Reducing Airline Ticket Costs.”
According to a report, passengers within the sub-region bear 66 different kinds of charges while the airlines bear 112 charges .
All these charges are said to contribute to the prohibitive airfare in the sub-region.
The committee of experts working on the reduction of cost of air tickets therefore urged members states to commit to the new regional strategy which involves “removal of all taxes in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) principles and procedures on taxes and charges and reduction of airport passenger service charge and security charge effective 1st January 2026 in consultation with airport and civil aviation authorities.”
The committee also urged airlines to ensure that savings made from the removal of taxes and reduction of charges reflect on the ticket process structure and subsequent reduction of cost of air ticket for travels within, to and from ECOWAS region.
Besides, airports are encouraged to embrace business practices for efficiency, cost reduction and growth of non-aeronautical revenue and sustainability.
Appiah stressed that the potential benefits of cancelling taxes and reducing charges by 25% by 1 January 2026 are enormous.
He explained that contrary to insinuations that reduction in taxes and charges will reduce earnings of the airlines, such an action will only boost air travel within the region which is still low when compared to other regions in the continent.
He said: “He further explained: “From our analysis and our simulations, if we are able to remove the taxes and reduce the charges by 25%, within a year, we have the potential of increasing air travel traffic by over 40%. So there was a notion before that when you remove taxes or you reduce charges, your revenue to governments and service providers would reduce. That has proven not to be true, because once you reduce these charges and remove the taxes, it has been proven that you are going to increase demand and traffic by over 40%. And that connotes increased revenue for the same uses that we seek to tax, to address.”
“ Now another finding that came out of our study was that in North Africa, Southern Africa, and East Africa, where some governments are charging zero taxes on air transport services, when we rank the top 10 airports in terms of passenger travels, the first eight are from these regions.
“When we rank the top 10 airlines on the African continent, the first eight are from these regions where they don’t charge any taxes, zero taxes, and their charges, which we are charging in essence of 103%, they charge sometimes 1.8%, and they are those performing well. So you look at airports in West Africa like Lagos, like Lome, or Accra, and you think that these are busy airports. But when you compare to others in Africa, we are not even part of the top seven.
Right? When you look at the top 10 airports in Africa in terms of passenger travels, and this is very well documented in all the studies by IATA, ICAO, even ECOWAS ourselves, the only airport that features was Lagos in terms of passenger traffic. When you look at interstate or in regional flights, the 10 busiest regional routes in Africa, it’s only Lagos and Accra that featured in the top 10, right? If you look at the top 10 airlines on the continent in Africa, it is only Airbus that featured as number nine. So from one to eight, these are from the regions or countries where taxation is zero on air tickets and charges are to the barest minimum, and respecting the four principles of pricing in air transport as set out by ICAO, where it says your costing should be cost-related.
“It should be sector-related. You don’t charge security tax on air transport. It has nothing to do with it. You don’t charge tourism tax on air transport. Air transport is supposed to improve your tourism, so you don’t tax it to stifle your tourism. There’s a principle on transparency.
“Governments don’t wake up one day and just say, we are imposing solidarity tax on the tickets without informing or consulting. So these are the principles that we are not respecting as members of ECOWAS, and that is what this new regional policy seeks to work with countries to solve. So in order for us to first have a good standing on the continent in terms of air transport, and it’s not for the good of anybody, it’s for the good of the citizens of West Africa, we need, as member states of ECOWAS, to implement this supplementary act which has been approved and adopted by our heads of states.
“By so doing, we have projected that revenue that could be generated is in excess of 500 million U.S. dollars, based on the 40 percent plus increase in traffic demand, which will be achieved from the reduction of the charges and the removal of the four taxes that have been identified to be not in compliance with international best practises as agreed at the level of ECOWAS.”
The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Hadja Mémounatou Ibrahima had lamented the prohibitive cost of airfare within the sub-region,saying it is hindering free movement and integration.
Ibrahima who spoke at the Lome meeting stressed that air transport is an essential lever for economic development and sub-regional integration.
She stressed that there can be no free movement without transport facilitation.
The Speaker therefore urged the committee to do all it could to ensure the region becomes competitive in the air transportation ecosystem..
