Botswana has opened her skies to more international airlines with today’s signing of a Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) with Ethiopia and Mauritius in Gaborone.

This brings such agreements to nine as Botswana seeks to fully liberalise her airways in a bid to improve transport infrastructure and sharpen her competitive edge in tourism.  The Ministry of Transport and Communications says in a statement that today’s formalisation of the two agreements, which were negotiated with the two countries last year, will see airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines and Air Mauritius flying to Botswana.

On the other hand, the government of Botswana will be able to designate any other Botswana carriers to these countries in addition to Air Botswana.

Ethiopian Airlines, the third largest airline in Africa, has flights to over 40 destinations within Africa. The agreement means airlines of the three countries will be able to directly access any destinations in either state by air to major tourist and mining hubs.

“The BASA contains provision on traffic rights including the routes that airlines can fly and cities that can be served within, between and beyond the bilateral partners. The agreements also include the number of flights that can be operated or passengers that can be carried between the bilateral partners as well as the number of airlines the bilateral partners can nominate to operate services,” reads the statement.

Botswana already has eight BASAs with Belgium, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In addition Botswana has also signed memoranda of understanding with 10 countries, Angola, Egypt, Germany, France, Netherlands, Pakistan, Tanzania, Qatar, Singapore and United Arab Emirates.

The liberalisation of the airways has been identified as a key driver to the growth of the tourism sector, which is a substantial contributor to the country’s economic growth.

The ongoing relocation of DTC International from London has also put pressure on Botswana to speed up the opening of its skies in order to attract global airlines to operate direct flights to Gaborone from major international cities where diamantaires are based.

Through such agreements, Air Namibia and South African Link recently started operations to Gaborone and Maun respectively while Air Botswana has also expanded its route network to include three flights per week from Maun to Cape Town.

The collapse of BASA negotiations with South Africa in 2009 forced Botswana to cease its Johannesburg-Maun direct flight as the southern neighbours retaliated against Air Botswana’s continued monopolisation of the lucrative route.

For years South African airlines tried to break into the lucrative route but the Botswana government declined to open the coveted corridor in order to protect Air Botswana, the national carrier.

Before the signing of the BASA two years ago, no other airline, except Air Botswana was permitted to have a scheduled flight from Johannesburg – which is the air access point of nearly all long-haul traffic from Europe and USA – to Maun, the largest tourist attraction in the region.

Apart from the agreements with South Africa and Namibia, Botswana and Singapore last year also concluded negotiations on a BASA that will pave the way for the commencement of direct air services between the two states.
The negotiations were held in August 2011 in Singapore and con

 
Source: http://www.mmegi.bw