Background

The Assembly of Heads of State and Government adopted the the liberalization of Access to Air Transport Markets in Africa otherwise known as the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) 1999 on 12 July 2000 in Lomé, Republic of Togo. However, almost six years after the coming into force of the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD), its implementation was still marred due to lack of regulatory and institutional frameworks such as the establishment of the  Executing Agency, development of the competition and consumer protection regulations as well as the dispute settlement mechanism.

In order to address this concern, the African Ministers responsible for air transport met in Sun City (South Africa) in 2005, and after critically reviewing the state of the African aviation industry affirmed the urgent need for the unencumbered implementation of the YD. It accordingly adopted a resolution and set concrete and practical plan of action to accelerate its implementation.

One of the major items of the plan of action was to put in place the essential elements of the regulatory and institutional framework that were envisaged under the YD, which are: the Executing Agency, Competition Regulations, Consumer Protection Regulation and Dispute Settlement Mechanism.

The African Union together with other organs of the YD such as the Monitoring Body were thereafter directed to initiate work towards the establishment of  the Agency and to put in place the remaining regulatory framework in accordance with the  plan of action.

The Libreville (Gabon) Second Ministerial Meeting, 2006

The African Ministers that met in Libreville in 2006 after reviewing and noting   the progress made on the implementation of the Sun City plan of action reiterated with regard to the establishment of the Executing Agency the need to consider the empowering of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) as the Executing Agency among the possible alternative option. The African Union was further directed to speed up the work of formation of the Agency and completing the other legal and institutional framework that were envisaged under the YD.

The resolutions of the Ministerial meetings were subsequently endorsed by the Executive Council of the AU in Banjul, Gambia in 2006.

The Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Ministerial Meeting, 2007

At the Meeting of the African Ministers Responsible for Air Transport held in Addis Ababa, the AU presented a report on the setting up of the Executing Agency. During the discussions and the debate that followed the presentation of the report to the Experts Group that preceded the ministerial meeting, the overwhelming majority of States represented took the position that AFCAC should be the vehicle for the establishment of the Agency.

It was strongly argued that establishing a totally new entity will increase the financial burden on states, disperse the meagre resources and will in any case create duplication of efforts as most of the work of the Executing Agency and AFCAC overlap in several areas.

At the end of an extensive debate the Experts Group agreed to recommend to the Ministers that AFCAC be given the attributes of the Executing Agency and that the AU in collaboration with AFCAC study the legal modalities for effecting the recommendation. The recommendation of the Experts Group was adopted by the Meeting of the Ministers as presented.

To this end, in 2007, the African Union (AU) entrusted AFCAC with the attribution of the Executing Agency of the Yamoussoukro Decision and charged it to supervise and manage the liberalization of African air transport. YD is the most important air transport reform policy initiative in Africa and provides for the liberalization of scheduled and non-scheduled air transport services within Africa. Thus, the YD aims at removing restrictions on traffic rights, capacity and frequency between African city pairs.