Ethiopian carrier at centre of Zambia-Kenya flights spat
An Ethiopian Airlines plane.
What you need to know:
- Kenya had granted landing rights to Zambia Airways in July 2024 at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
- The dispute had been quietly going on without a resolution for three months and only came to light early this month.
Zambia Airways, whose flights to Nairobi Kenya had blocked, has released its flight schedule after resolution of the dispute, even as compliance queries remain.
Nairobi had barred the airline over its failure to comply with the international civil aviation rules and regulations.
Last week, Nairobi and Lusaka rushed to avert a stalemate that could have inconvenienced travellers after Zambia announced suspension of Kenya Airways flights to its airspace in retaliation.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) had accused its Zambian counterpart, ZCAA, of failing to comply with the protocol relating to an amendment to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Article 83 bis.
At the centre of the storm is the shareholding arrangement between the Zambian government and Ethiopian Airlines, with the latter owning 45 percent shareholding of the Zambian carrier.
Zambian Airways wanted to use an Ethiopian registered aircraft wet-leased to Zambia Airways. Wet leasing refers to a situation where the lessor also supplies crew to operate the leased aircraft. In this case, it meant that Ethiopian Airlines would technically operate the flights from Nairobi to Zambia because they were charged with providing oversight on the aircraft leased.
Kenya had granted landing rights to Zambia Airways in July 2024 at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) but sources indicated the wet-leased B737-700 was not initially on their register, in line with article 83 bis, raising safety and control issues.
If the wet-leased aircraft were listed by the Zambia Civil Aviation Authority, the dispute would never have arisen, Kenyan civil aviation authorities say.
“Once the Zambian Authorities complied and met the requirements of the pursar, we immediately sorted out the issue. People think that we caved in, that is not true,” said Emile Arao, KCAA director-general.
Article 83 bis establishes that agreements for the transfer of certain oversight responsibilities from the State of Registry to the State of the Operator shall be recognised by all other Contracting States which have ratified it.
“The transfer of responsibility may involve functions and duties under Articles 12, 30, 31 and 32 a) of the Convention, which address rules of the air, radio licensing, certificates of airworthiness, and personnel licenses, respectively,” the Article reads says.
Differences between the laws and regulations of the State of Registry, in this case Zambia, and those of the State of the Operator -- Ethiopian Airlines -- may also exist in the case of wet leases, especially a lease of aircraft with crew.
The ZCAA confirmed that they have a shareholding deal with Ethiopian Airlines, but denied that that was the cause of friction between the two states.
ZCAA’s public relations manager Sepiso Mukubesa Zimba, speaking for director-general Capt Derrick Luembe,confirmed that Ethiopian owns 45 percent shareholding in the Zambian national carrier.
“The airline was established in 2014 in accordance with the shareholder’s agreement signed between Zambia through the Industrial Development Corporation Limited (IDC) and Ethiopian Airlines Group in August 2018, where IDC owns 55 percent while Ethiopian Airlines Group (ET) owns 45 percent of the shares,” she said.
ZCAA, however, did not directly address the question of the aircraft missing on their register when the landing rights request was made.
“States are guided by Bilateral and Multilateral Air Service Agreements (Basas). Through these Basas, a contracting party shall grant to the other contracting party the rights provided for in this agreement to enable the designated airline of that other contracting party to establish and operate international air services on the routes specified in the Annex,” Ms Zimbasaid.
She said that Zambia and Kenya signed a Basa, to which both parties were obliged to adhere.
“It can, therefore, be concluded that what happened with Kenya was not supposed to , and Zambia Airways was supposed to be allowed to fly into Kenya,” she added.
The dispute had been quietly going on without a resolution for three months and only came to light early this month.
In a letter dated October 2, 2024, the ZCAA director-general announced the suspension meant to take effect at 21:59 Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) on October 8, 2024.
Capt Luembe explained that Zambia Airways, through the Ministry of Transport and Logistics, had applied for scheduled flights from Lusaka to Nairobi.
While the KCAA initially granted it a Foreign Operators Permit, authorisation to operate flights into Nairobi using a wet-leased Boeing 737-700 was declined.
After a meeting with KCAA, the suspension lifted.
Aviation experts say the dispute would not have arisen had the aviation authorities exhausted their engagements before the matter went public.
“We are happy that there is a solution but, if we have to relook at what is at stake as a continent, it should never have happened,” said Fred Onyango Obbo, a Ugandan aviation expert. “Within the continent, there is a need to liberalise the airspace and do away with fears of competition.”
KQ has, in the recent past, been fighting for space in the regional aviation industry.
Tanzania has, in a span of three years, suspended KQ flights twice after Kenya denied its carrier the rights to fly into Nairobi.
In 2020, the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) banned KQ “on a reciprocal basis” after the Kenyan government excluded Tanzania from a list of countries whose passengers would be allowed to enter Kenya when commercial flights resumed after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.
In January this year, Tanzanian aviation authorities announced the suspension of all KQ passenger flights to Dar es Salaam, “based on the principle of reciprocity, following the refusal by the Kenyan authorities to grant approval for ATCL's cargo flights despite the clear provisions of the MoU," according TCAA director-general Hamza S. Johari.
It turned out that at the heart of the dispute were safety concerns at JKIA, which diplomatically Kenya avoided discussing in public.
The matter was eventually resolved after the intervention of Kenya’s Foreign minister, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
