(NAIROBI, KENYA) – The International Air Transport Association has criticised Kenya for supporting Kenya Airways while imposing charges and policies that raise the cost of air travel and hold back the national carrier’s growth.
Kamil Al-Awadhi, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Africa and the Middle East, said Kenya is among several African countries loading excessive taxes, levies and charges onto aviation. He singled out the recently introduced mandatory travel insurance for international visitors as an added burden.
He said Kenya Airways cannot thrive while it is squeezed by taxes and charges in Kenya and across the continent, which push up fares and eat into airlines’ already thin profit margins amid rising fuel costs and other industry pressures.
“What bothers me is that the entities within the African governments are squeezing more and more out of their airlines,” Mr Al-Awadhi said at a press briefing on the sidelines of the Aviation Africa Conference in Nairobi on Thursday.
“You hear the same guy say, ‘I want to create a national carrier, the pride of Africa,’ and I agree with him. That same guy, ‘we’re going to charge $5 API-PNR.’ Why are you charging something that passengers have nothing to do with?”
Advance Passenger Information and Passenger Name Record are separate datasets that airlines send to border control authorities before passengers arrive. Kenya charges airlines $4.95 (KES640) per passenger for processing the data, a fee that has drawn criticism from the aviation industry.
The API-PNR fee sits on top of the $50 (KES6,470) Air Passenger Service Charge imposed on international travellers, while domestic passengers pay KES600 ($4.64 / GBP3.66). The international charge was raised from $40 and the domestic charge from KES500 ($3.86 / GBP3.05) in 2018.
Mr Al-Awadhi also criticised Kenya’s introduction of mandatory health insurance for international visitors, saying the extra $44 (KES5,694 / GBP34.74) will raise the price of travelling to the country and could hold back demand.
“Kenya has just added $44 for medical insurance to the ticket. Don’t you think there’s gonna be an impact on the number of passengers travelling?” he said.
He linked the spread of aviation charges partly to poor coordination among government agencies and a failure to recognise the wider economic contribution of aviation.
The criticism comes as the government backs Kenya Airways’ turnaround efforts, including helping to guarantee the airline’s debt and seeking a strategic investor to inject fresh capital into the carrier.
IATA argues that such support is undermined if government agencies keep extracting more revenue from the airline and the wider aviation sector through taxes, levies and fees.
According to IATA, African airlines, including Kenya Airways, are expected to make an average net profit of only $0.40 (KES52 / GBP0.32) per passenger seat this year, down from $1.50 (KES194 / GBP1.18) last year.
“This is because of the ridiculous prices of fuel today in Africa specifically, and the crazy, illogical, down-to-theft charges, levies, and fees on aviation,” Mr Al-Awadhi said.
In June, African states, including Kenya, committed through the Lomé Ministerial Declaration to cut excessive taxes, levies and fees on aviation as part of efforts to lower operating costs and improve the competitiveness of African airlines.
IATA says governments have yet to take meaningful steps to reduce the charges.
President William Ruto this week signed the Air Passenger Service Charge Amendment Act into law, widening the purposes for which APSC proceeds can be used to include the Kenya Meteorological Department, alongside the Kenya Airports Authority and the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.
The move increases the number of government agencies relying on the passenger charge, even as the aviation industry calls for lower costs to support the growth of air connectivity and airlines such as Kenya Airways.