Overland Airways, Nigeria’s leading regional carrier, has been granted Fifth Freedom rights by The Gambian Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).
This milestone enables the airline to operate flights from The Gambia to other destinations across West Africa, aligning with the African Union’s Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative to liberalize air travel across the continent.
According to aviationmetric.com, the Director-General of GCAA, Nfansu Bojang disclosed on Saturday when Overland Airways launched service to the West African country with its brand new E-175 aircraft.
In what appeared to be a watershed moment in The Gambia’s air transport industry, the thrice-weekly service via Freetown is launched against the backdrop of renewed efforts to enhance intra-African air connectivity through the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM).
The DG noted that as SAATM Pilot Implementation Project (PIP) State and a founding member of the Banjul Accord Group (BAG), the decision of the government to grant Overland Airways Fifth Freedom Traffic Rights through Freetown in line with Article 3.1 of the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) reinforces, “Our commitment to the ideals of SSAATM in the BAG sub-region.
The Fifth Freedom Aviation Right means that the aircraft of country A, from a service originating in country A, is allowed to embark passengers and cargo in country B and disembark them in country C.
The GCAA was of the view that establishing a direct air link between Lagos and Banjul would greatly benefit the two sister countries as it would enable greater movement of people which would lead to wider economic benefits.
Bajang assured the carrier of total support and commitment in the form of incentives, granting of rights on other routes as well as designation where necessary, geared towards making its Banjul operations successful.
He lauded the Chief Executive Officer of Overland Airways, Capt. Edward Boyo for his commitment to SAATM implementation and efforts to make air transport seamless within West Africa in particular and Africa in general.
He said he never had any doubt in Boyo’s commitment and confidence in the promotion of the integration of intra-African air connectivity.
“The YD we know is more than three decades old and the one that came next is 15 years old now. Now, we have SAATM. SAATM is an AU project but we don’t want SAATM to be another ten years, we want SAATM to be now and for SAATM to be now, we must believe in ourselves and we as regulators and operators and service providers, we hold it to ourselves to support our airlines in any ways possible and one of the ways to do that is to make travel affordable to our citizens.”
Boyo said air travel is currently confined to the well-to-do. Overland Airways according to him presents itself under the AU AFCAC Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) programme designed to open the skies of Africa and raise the integration of African member states.
“We are trying to make air transport affordable and available for everybody so that the African continent can progress in economy, trade and integration of people. We are committed to this service to develop the Nigerian and the Gambian economy.”
