African countries should liberalize air space to competition among airlines at regional level, director in the Department of Civil Aviation in Zambia has said.

The Post Thursday quoted Chitalu Kabalika as saying Wednesday that African countries should emulate Europe and America that have managed to pull resources together in managing airlines to avoid inconveniences in the air business and ensuring airlines fly between the capitals.

He said in Livingstone, the capital of Southern Province, that the current situation where people flying to other parts of Africa have to go through countries like France is proving too difficult and making it impossible for others to travel because of huge expenses.

Jabalika said the department of civil aviation through relevant authorities in Zambia would ensure implementing monitoring mechanism to allow for competition in the airline business at regional level in a manner that operators do not make losses.

He said competition in the airline business will be handled effectively since Zambia, like most countries in the southern African region, already has established competition bodies. Already each country in the region has an airline so what they are looking at is easy connections to different cities in these countries by allowing more air space to the operators, he said.

Kabalika, who is attending bilateral meetings for the International Civil Aviation Organization, said most countries in the region have done well in ground navigation because of peace in the countries unlike some war-torn countries in northern part of Africa.

Source: Xinhua