SAATM

The Air Transport Industry in Africa: A Legal Analysis of the Single African Air Transport Market makes a significant and timely contribution by synthesizing these domains into a coherent analytical narrative. Across nine chapters, the book situates the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) not merely as a sectoral reform initiative, but as a continental economic governance project embedded within the broader African Union integration architecture.

It is such delight to introduce this Review Symposium on my book, The Air Transport Industry in Africa: A Legal Analysis of the Single African Air Transport Market, published by Routledge in 2025. Convened by Afronomicslaw, the leading blog on international law and international economic law issues relating to Africa and the Global South, the symposium brings together a distinguished group of scholars and practitioners in air law who constructively engage with the book’s arguments, scope, and contribution to African air transport law and regional integration debates.

The provisions regarding the movement of people as services suppliers in the AfCFTA are a welcome development in the agenda of boosting intra-African trade in services. The next phases of trade in services are currently under negotiations at the end of which State Parties are expected to take specific commitments in sectors and modes of supply. It is only upon completion of that phase that the breadth and depth of service liberalization in the AfCFTA will be appreciated and possibly quantified.