Bosco Hitimana

KIGALI, RWANDA - High airport charges, too many bird strikes when taking off or landing are small but significant problems airlines operating in East Africa currently face, an airline operator has said.

"Airport charges are quite high in East Africa. We also have too many bird strikes," Mr. Hugh Fraser, the chief executive officer Air Uganda said in an interview with East African Business Week last week. Fraser said that East African airports lack devices that prevent birds from accessing spaces reserved for landing and taking off. "That is something we need a little more assistance from the airport authorities," Fraser said.

He said when aircrafts are taking off or landing, sometimes birds stick into their engines.

This is something that can cause accidents and claim lives of people in the aircrafts.

The bird strikes can also force airlines to change flights schedules the moment they happen.

For instance, a few months ago, a RwandAir aircraft suffered a bird strike in Nairobi and the airline was forced to change its the flight schedules across its destinations.

Johannesburg airport in South Africa is one of the African airports with bird prevention devices.

Much as Fraser says that the East African airline industry has potential to grow, the East African skies are still tightly closed and some governments are more protective of their airlines than others.