Zambia Seizes Control of Africa's Aviation Future

Esther Nachula, Ciela Resort and Spa, Lusaka, 17 October 2025 —Mr. Fredrick Mwalusaka flew south to Johannesburg, spent the night in a hotel, then flew back north over Zambia the next morning to reach Lubumbashi—a city just 400 kilometres from where he started in Ndola. A government official in most countries might bury this discomfiture, but Mwalusaka stood at a microphone and weaponised it, turning a personal story about an overnight detour through South Africa into an indictment of decades of African aviation policy. The detail that should terrify anyone, happened because an international flight landing in Ndola could not legally pick up passengers in transit, a restriction that exists because regulators across the continent decided long ago that protecting bureaucratic territory mattered more than letting human beings reach their actual destinations

The Permanent Secretary for Transport and Logistics delivered this address on behalf of Minister Frank Tayali at the 2025 ASSA Conference and AGA at Ciela Resort and Spa, and his message carried the weight of someone tired of watching potential evaporate into policy documents. "I had to fly back all the way into South Africa, spend the night in South Africa, fly over Zambia to get to Lubumbashi the following morning," Mwalusaka said. "I think we can do better than that. We need a connected that..has open skies."

Africa invented the concept of regional economic cooperation when the Southern African Development Community was conceived and born in Lusaka in 1980, yet 45 years later, the region still cannot manage what Europe accomplished in the 1990s and what Asia never needed external agreements to achieve—allowing airlines to operate routes that match commercial demand rather than political sensitivities.

Cargo as the Forgotten Frontier

Mr. Mwalusaka made clear that passenger inconvenience, while maddening, represents only half the crisis. The real economic carnage happens in warehouses and cargo terminals where African exports sit idle while global buyers find suppliers elsewhere. "Aviation stands out as a cornerstone of regional integration, the free movement of people, goods and services," he noted, before pivoting to the harder truth: "As we improve, we must broaden our horizons beyond passenger traffic and elevate aviation cargo to its rightful place as a growth frontier for the African aviation industry."

The statistics behind this statement are brutal. African nations possess enormous agricultural output, massive mineral wealth, and growing manufacturing capacity, yet the continent captures a humiliatingly small percentage of global air cargo revenue because the infrastructure and regulatory environment make shipping goods an exercise in bureaucratic torture. Customs systems do not communicate across borders. Cargo facilities lack cold chain capabilities. Digital logistics platforms remain fragmented or non-existent. The result is that African products either travel by sea—adding weeks to delivery times—or get routed through Middle Eastern and European hubs where efficiency is taken for granted.

Zambia has decided to stop complaining about this situation and start fixing it. The country signed up for the Single African Air Transport Market and joined 18 other African states in the SAATM Pilot Implementation Program, which was launched in Lusaka in August 2025. Standing before aviation stakeholders at the October conference, Mr. Mwalusaka made an announcement that could either mark a turning point or become another symbolic gesture lost to history: "I am honoured to officially accept the request from the Airlines Association of Southern Africa to act as custodian of the SAATM initiative."

Zambia now holds responsibility for shepherding a program designed to crack open protected routes, eliminate cabotage restrictions, and allow airlines to operate based on market demand rather than flag-carrier protectionism. The symbolism of Lusaka serving as both birthplace and custodian of regional aviation integration is obvious. Whether the country can move beyond symbolism into actual implementation will determine whether African aviation finally grows up or continues infantilising itself with policies that no serious economy would tolerate.

Building Hubs While Others Build Excuses

Mr. Mwalusaka outlined a national strategy that treats aviation cargo as central to economic planning rather than an afterthought to passenger services. Zambia is investing in cargo terminals, cold chain facilities, and digital logistics systems at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport and Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula International Airport. The goal is specific: "We are positioning our country as a regional cargo and logistics hub, linking agriculture, mining, manufacturing value chains to regional and global markets."

This ambition requires more than upgraded infrastructure. The region needs to move toward higher aviation cargo integration, making airports function as efficient cargo hubs with dedicated freight services and digitised, harmonised customs and logistics systems. Mr. Mwalusaka called upon the Airlines Association of Southern Africa and its members to develop regional air cargo strategies, harmonise customs and security standards, and develop public-private partnerships that can mobilise capital without waiting for governments to fund everything through strained budgets.

Zambia is also advancing what Mr. Mwalusaka calls multi-connectivity, linking air, road, and rail networks for seamless cargo movement. The phrase he used to describe this approach has been repeated so often in Zambian policy circles that it risks becoming a slogan, but the underlying concept remains sound: "This is what we mean when we say Zambia is transforming from being landlocked to being land linked."

Geographic disadvantage becomes geographic opportunity when a country positioned between multiple markets can offer faster connections than coastal competitors bogged down in port congestion and inefficient ground transportation. Zambia can only exploit this advantage if the regulatory environment allows cargo to move freely and if the physical infrastructure can handle the volume. Both requirements remain aspirational rather than operational, but the strategy at least acknowledges what needs to happen.

The Opportunity and the Ask

Mr. Mwalusaka framed the path forward as a collective challenge requiring investment in cargo infrastructure, digital air freight systems, and green aviation technologies. He specifically urged stakeholders to think beyond their immediate balance sheets and consider what regional coordination could unlock. Airlines that cooperate on cargo routes can fill aircraft more efficiently than those competing for the same limited freight on the same limited routes. Customs agencies that harmonise their procedures can speed up clearance times and reduce the documentation nightmares that currently send shippers to competing continents. Governments that allow fifth-freedom rights—where airlines can pick up cargo in one foreign country and deliver it to another—can turn their airports into genuine transit hubs rather than dead-end destinations.

Other regions have already built the systems that Africa keeps discussing. The question is whether 19 countries joining a pilot program in 2025 represents genuine momentum or just another round of ministerial photo opportunities followed by bureaucratic inertia. Mr. Mwalusaka clearly believes the former is possible, but his own story about flying backward to move forward suggests he understands how deeply the latter is embedded in African aviation culture.

The conference in Lusaka was not the first time officials have gathered to discuss open skies, cargo integration, and regional connectivity. It will not be the last. What made him address different was the willingness to name the absurdity out loud and attach his own wasted day to the larger policy failure. A government official who admits to being a victim of the system he now helps manage either possesses unusual honesty or unusual frustration. Probably both.

Africa built the institutional framework for regional integration 45 years ago and has spent the time since then watching other continents eat its economic lunch. Zambia has now volunteered to fix what 54 countries spent half a century breaking. The work ahead requires killing off the protected interests and bureaucratic habits that turned African aviation into a monument to what happens when policy serves governments instead of economies. Whether Zambia can actually pull this off remains to be seen, but at least one senior official has stopped pretending the current system is anything other than a failure that charges you twice for the privilege of going nowhere.