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Mr Jean Baptiste Mutabazi

Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
THE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) says the open skies concept where airlines from the region would fly directly to any destination in the regional bloc, will be piloted next year.

Comesa is a regional bloc comprising 19 countries including Zimbabwe.

For the past two years Comesa has been crafting a regulatory framework meant to liberalise aviation space and harmonise aviation laws.

It is envisaged that once implemented, there will be uniform aviation policies across the bloc thereby reducing operational costs for airlines.

Since Wednesday, 11 of the 19 member States have been meeting here where they are deliberating on the financial implications of the concept with a view to finalise the regulatory framework.

In an interview on the sidelines of the workshop which ends today, Comesa director Mr Jean Baptiste Mutabazi said the project was divided into three phases with the first stage set to be launched next year.

“This is the third workshop where we are looking at technical, feasibility and financial impact of the project that Comesa is undertaking to have seamless upper airspace. The objective of the project is to improve air transport among Comesa member states. The intention is to harmonise rules, procedures and practices in Comesa states.

“The legal framework was adopted at a technical level last year and now we are looking at what is required at individual state’s level as well as costs. The project will be implemented at different levels as it has been divided into three phases,” said Mr Mutabazi.

He said the first phase would involve harmonising rules and regulations leading to countries being segmented according to either their geographical location or technical response to the concept.

“The first phase will be implemented next year in line with the study. The second phase will involve grouping countries which are almost similar in geography so that they may have a common control centre,” he said.

Mr Mutabazi said liberalising the aviation space, which entails ‘vertical and longitudinal’ separation by improving equipment, would see the region meeting international aviation standards as well as reducing operational costs for airlines.

Harmonising the upper air space would steer economic growth by providing safe, efficient and cost effective air navigation services to support trade, tourism and regional socio-economic integration by opening new direct routes.

Civil aviation operators including the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe and its counterparts are part of the proceedings.

The workshop was officially opened by Transport and Infrastructural Development Deputy Minister Engineer Michael Madanha on Wednesday.

Eng Madanha commended the technocrats for their efforts in coming up with the framework.

@ncubeleon