SAATM

The book “The Air Transport Industry in Africa: A Legal Analysis of the Single African Air Transport Market” is a detailed exploration of the nexus between law and aviation, which seeks to promote the aviation industry in Africa. The book is a timely intervention as Africa grapples with an overly regulated aviation market. Importantly, the book unpacks the goals of Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), which is an initiative which seeks to provide an impetus towards the deregulation of the air services and open regional markets. The author examines the complexities provided by the quest for a liberalised air transport market as espoused by SAATM. He observes the challenges provided by the transition from bilateral agreements to unifies market based. The book is a timely intervention as Africa braces for an accelerated intra-African trade, and the aviation industry is seen as a panacea for the full actualisation of the African dream.

Dr. William Kiema’s The Air Transport Industry in Africa: A Legal Analysis of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) is a major scholarly contribution to African aviation law, regional integration, and development policy. The book offers a rigorous and multidimensional examination of Africa’s air transport sector, interrogating its historical evolution, legal architecture, institutional governance, and political economy. At its core, the book analyses the promise and persistent underperformance of continental air transport liberalisation, with particular emphasis on the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) and its contemporary operationalisation through SAATM.

This book presents a comprehensive examination of the African air transport industry, widely and comprehensively combining historical insight, policy analysis, legal frameworks, and strategic recommendations to outline the trajectory of aviation development in Africa. It positions the aviation sector not simply as an economic driver but as a strategic enabler of continental integration, trade, and socio-economic transformation, an aspiration shared globally. At a time when Africa’s aviation industry is rebuilding after the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 and navigating challenging liberalisation initiatives such as the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) and the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), the book offers a timely and relevant contribution to policy discourse.

William Kiema’s ‘The Air Transport Industry in Africa: A Legal Analysis of the Single African Air Transport Market’ is a core contribution to academia and legal thought from a historically underexplored area of legal practice. Kiema effectively and convincingly makes among the first efforts to light up the intra-African skies by positing that air transport on the continent is underdeveloped for reasons including persistent regulatory fragmentation, uneven political commitment, and significant economic disparities across member states. The author acknowledges that the complexity of bilateral air service agreements (BASAs) and divergent national priorities has hindered liberalisation efforts, while operational challenges such as inadequate safety oversight, limited access to financing, and insufficient infrastructure further constrain progress effectively identifies the core challenges that have impeded progress in liberalisation.

Dr. William Kiema’s new book asks one key question: Is a Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) achievable? The book is a deep dive into the historical development of air transport in Africa. Throughout the book, the reader encounters numerous attempts towards a unified air transport market. However, this dream has been somewhat attainable but elusive. Africa is a continent rich in resources and wealth. There are diverse offerings from across the continent. These areas are primarily connected through road which, while cheap, are mismanaged and mostly unconnected.

With successful examples from regions such as the EU and Asia, African states have extended the African strategy of “using African solutions to Africa’s problems”, to air transport services in the continent. A major solution which was agreed upon by the African Union (AU) at its 24th Session was the liberalization of African skies through the establishment of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM). The SAATM is designed to implement the Yamoussoukro Decision of 1999 which itself is a legacy of the 1988 Yamoussoukro Declaration. Although, considered a critical impetus to the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the SAATM it is yet to be fully operationalized. This raises questions among others, on why the states have failed to fulfil their obligations under the YD, the philosophy behind the lack of political will by states, and prospects towards achieving the reality of a 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.