We know that some states have put in place financial support to their airlines, but we are asking them to go further. In April, AFRAA made an assessment of indebtedness of our airlines for 2020, 2021, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. We found that for the 16 members who responded, the indebtedness level was $3.2 billion. So we are working with African Union and the financial institutions to put in place a fund of $25 billion to support the industry, not only airlines, but also airports, air navigation service providers. We think that by January 2021 we will have this fund in place and it will help restart the business. We also need to bring back confidence of passengers to travel, because the current situation is very difficult in Africa. We need the harmonisation
of health screening protocols across the continent. We still have some very high health testing costs, so AFRAA is advocating to reduce the PCR test cost
The COVID-19 pandemic is a huge opportunity for a network reset. within Africa, and also to harmonize the protocols and to have mutual recognitions of protocols across the continent. ďƒź
AFRAA's Abdrahmane Berthe says Covid-19 has set back SAATM.
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