By; Sulaiman Jalloh
The Director General of the Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Authority (SLCAA) Musayeroh Barrie has disclosed that Sierra Leone’s safety rate stands at 72% and 71% security rate, noting this is higher than some of the established countries in the region, adding that such is a bigger achievement for the Civil Aviation Authority.
Musayeroh said SLCAA will continue working hard to consolidate such gains and establish a platform where there will be encouragement of bigger carriers to be coming into the country in order to address the competition, which according to her, will have a positive impact on the cost of coming to Sierra Leone.
The Civil Aviation Authority boss said her institution is a regulatory industry and not an operator, adding that their main function is to make sure that operators are in compliance with the legal instrument as guided by the international principles, noting that they will increase the oversight responsibility as a regulatory body in making sure they get the best out of the service providers.
According to the Director General, various factors contribute to the increase of tickets prices like passengers’ volume, fewer airlines coming into the country, and inflation among others. She said on October 24, 2023, they did a booking for three airlines from Freetown to London at the cost ofUS$1,871, and of that, only US$139 are taxes; while all the remaining range from point of origin and the point of arrival which all of these contribute significantly to the cost tickets up to US$1,871.
Madam Barrie said, upon assuming office, she first engaged with the airlines to ascertain more information on ticket cost and the implications from the findings.
According to her, the market, that is to travel to Sierra Leone, is considered as the late open market; noting majority of the passengers coming to the country may buy their tickets a week or two before coming to Sierra Leone. These factors, she said have effect on the cost of ticket and its outside government control.
Director Barrie emphasized that such factors and others are beyond government control to decide the cost of tickets. She noted that passenger volume is another huge factor that leads to the increase of ticket cost, adding that when airlines are doing ticket costing, they consider the passenger volume; noting the country has a limited competition. She noted that the European airlines coming into the country are only three compared to Guinea and other countries within the sub-region.
She however encouraged that, as a country, there should be efforts to tackle all these challenges, saying that is why the Aviation Authority has asked airlines to put on hold the planned visas to get a holistic solution though it is a long-term strategy. She assured that her institution will continue to work collaborative with the Ministry of Transport to address most of trending issues.
Musayeroh Barrie made the disclosure during the Ministry of Information and Civic Education weekly press briefing on October 24, 2023 held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Copy right –Printed in the Expo Times News on Wednesday 1st November, 2023 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)