plane in the airport

CETMO and ACI Africa memorandum

  • ACI Africa supports CETMO through a collaboration that aims to culminate in the development of specific projects in the field of airports
  • CETMO is aware of the potential of airports as tools for economic and social progress and wants to promote their development

CETMO (Centre for Transportation Studies for the Western Mediterranean) and ACI Africa (Airports Council International Africa), the organization that represents and promotes the interests of African airports, sign a memorandum of understanding with the willingness to work together to boost Maghreb airports.

This collaboration is based on the common interests of the two organizations to improve the regional integration of transport in North Africa, to promote the necessary conditions for the development of air transport in the region and to improve the connections between the different modes of transport.

Among the commitments made by the two organizations in this memorandum of understanding, data exchanges stand out. In this sense, the CETMO will mainly provide socio-economic data and future infrastructure networks and traffic flows data. For its part, ACI Africa will provide air traffic data for African airports, including those in the Maghreb region.

Exchanges of good practices in air transport issues in which the countries of the region may be interested will also be very relevant, such as the creation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), the transformation processes affecting North African airlines, the opportunities for the development of North African airports or the creation of the necessary conditions for a sustainable evolution of air transport in the region.

With reference to specific projects, the memorandum of understanding will seek to promote priority air transport initiatives in the Western Mediterranean to move towards multimodal transport networks in the region.

Airport project on the horizon 2040:

One of the main reasons for signing this memorandum of understanding is the interest of ACI Africa in participating in an airport project promoted by CETMO. The Centre for Transportation Studies for the Western Mediterranean considers airports as essential nodal infrastructures to improve transport conditions in the Western Mediterranean and the Maghreb region in particular. In this way, and with the aim of strengthening this field of its knowledge, CETMO has begun to work on the present and the future challenges of Maghreb airports.

This project, which addresses the time horizon 2020-2040, aims to analyze the evolution of the Maghreb airports in this time space with the aim of producing a set of documents containing precise recommendations for the countries of the region in order to define its national airport strategy.

Always within the territorial scope of the Maghreb, the project will address issues such as the promotion of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), the reconversion of flag companies, the diversification of airport revenues, the definition of short and medium-term scenarios for air transport due to the covid-19 pandemic, as well as the challenges of the region’s airports to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

ACI Africa:

Formed in 1991, ACI Africa is one of the regional offices of Airports Council International. Its main objective is to look after the interests of the continent’s airports, as well as to promote professional excellence in their management and operation, while promoting a safe and sustainable development of the air transport industry.

As at December 2019, ACI Africa is made up of 67 members from 52 African countries, which manage 261 airports. It also includes 44 business partners.