African Airlines Association


The African Airlines Association, also known as the Association of African Airline Companies and by its abbreviation AFRAA, is a trade association of airlines which hail from Africa. Founded in Accra, Ghana in 1968, and today headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, the primary purpose of AFRAA is to establish and facilitate co-operation between African airlines.
The formation of the African Airlines Association was the result of historic developments and economic imperatives. In the early 1960s, a great number of African States acceded to independence and created their own national airlines. Most of these airlines became members of the International Air Transport Association.
AFRAA has its conceptual beginning in 1963, when a number of African airlines, taking the opportunity provided by the IATA Annual General Meeting began holding consultation meetings prior to the IATA AGMs to discuss matters of interest to African airlines and to adopt common positions. This was the first step towards the creation of AFRAA. From that first step in Rome in 1963, the establishment in 1968 in Accra, of a regional organisation for the articulation of regional views and promotion of co-operation was undertaken by 14 founding members.

Secretary general, director and managers

AFRAA's current management includes Abdrahmane Berthe, the Secretary General, Koussai Mrabet, the Director of Commercial, Corporate and Industry Affairs, and Juliet Indetie, the Deputy Head of Corporate Finance and Administration.

Organs

The general assembly
The highest policy-making body of the association is the annual general assembly, composed of chief executives of member airlines. The annual general assembly is presided over by the president of the association. Mrs. Siza Mzimela, chief executive officer of South African Airways, is the president of the association for 2012. In this capacity, Mrs. Mzimela and South African Airways will host the 44th AGA in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November 2012.
The executive committee
The executive committee, composed of 9 members elected on a sub-regional basis among chief executives and ex officio members with voting rights who are members of the IATA board of governors, exercises executive authority. The current chairman of the executive committee is Captain Hossam Kamal, chairman and group CEO of EgyptAir. Its function is to ensure supervision of the affairs, funds and property of the association and formulation and determination of policies within the framework of articles of association, by-laws and resolutions adopted by the General Assembly.
The secretariat
The secretariat serves as the administrative, co-ordination and research centre for the association. It is headed by a secretary general who is responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the association.

Objectives

In over 4 decades, AFRAA has been instrumental in developing and articulating air transport policies in Africa.
Towards this end, it has been in the fore-front of major initiatives in the air transport field in Africa in sensitizing African airlines to take concrete actions for cooperation in Operational, Legal Commercial, Technical, Information Communication Technology and Training fields.
It has also been instrumental in sensitizing African Governments, the African Civil Aviation Commission and other regional and sub-regional organizations on actions to be taken for the development of an efficient air transport system. AFRAA has been a catalyst for all major aviation policy decisions in the continent.
In fulfilling its role as an effective trade Association, AFRAA ensures that its member airlines are kept abreast on the latest developments and trends in the industry.
Currently, the following areas are drawing a lot of interest:

Steering committees and task forces

AFRAA provides a forum through which member airlines meet to develop and consolidate common approach to key issues in the aviation industry.
To accomplish the objectives stated earlier, the association has the following Steering Committees:
The Task Forces through which the association seeks projects of economic value to members are as follows:

AFRAA members

Any African Airline operating air services in the carriage of passengers and or cargo and meets the eligibility criteria may apply for membership as an Active or Associate member. The following is a list of the current AFRAA members.
AirlineCountryYear Joined AFRAA
Afriqiyah Airways2002
Air Algérie1968
Air Botswana1991
Air Burkina2002
Air Djibouti2019.
Air Madagascar1975
Air Malawi1968
Air Mali1968
Air Mauritius1985
Air Namibia2000
Air Senegal2019
Air Seychelles1993
Air Tanzania1977
Air Zimbabwe1981
Camair-Co2012
CEIBA Intercontinental Airlines2011
ECAir2012
EgyptAir 1968
Eritrean Airlines2011
Ethiopian Airlines 1968
Kenya Airways 1977
LAM Mozambique Airlines1976
Libyan Airlines1968
Nile Air2016
Precision Air2006
Royal Air Maroc 1977
RwandAir
Safarilink Aviation2019
South African Airways1994
South African Express2003
Sudan Airways1968
Starbow Airlines2012
TAAG Angola Airlines1978
Toumaï Air Tchad2007
Tunisair1968
Uganda National Airlines Company2019

AFRAA partners

Besides membership contributions to the association, AFRAA has partners, who also support the activities of the association through financial contributions and sponsorship of specific projects and programmes. Currently there are a number of companies including aircraft and engine manufacturers and other airlines service providers registered under the partnership programme. The aim of the partnership programme is to pool together the much needed additional support from industry-related organizations whilst enabling the partners to benefit from a relationship with an efficient, knowledgeable and influential air transport trade association in Africa.
The AFRAA Partnership programme is open to all industry-related organisations that are interested in participating in the development of air transport in Africa. The programme aims to pool together resources and support from industry service providers while enabling partners to benefit from a relationship with a continental air transport trade organisation. Interested companies may apply for either full partnership or associate partnership of AFRAA.