Middle East airline representatives are proposing the creation of a single visa for the Arab region in order to aid development of tourism and travel within the area.
The region is gradually shifting towards greater air transport liberalisation and the Arab Air Carriers Organisation (AACO) believes that a single visa would advance the establishment of a unified Arab aviation market.
Speaking at the organisation’s annual conference in Kuwait last week, AACO secretary general Abdul Wahab Teffaha said the group had long called for visa restrictions to be eased, and was encouraged by efforts to introduce electronic visas, speed processing and even the lift certain requirements.
But he points to the Schengen visa, a single visa allowing access to 13 European Union states plus Norway and Iceland, as a potential model for Middle Eastern countries.
“It is useful in this area to invite governments to consider the adoption of a uniform visa between all, or some, of the Arab countries – along the lines of the Schengen visa – which would give added value to the Arab tourism market,” says Teffaha.
Arab states presently have a relatively low ratio of passengers to population; the figure is around 1:3. Teffaha says that further liberalisation is needed to raise this to the 1:1 level typical of areas such as Europe and the USA.
In order to underpin the development of tourism, he adds, it is “essential” for governments to ease the burden of airline taxation.
“It is unreasonable to ask the air transport sector to increase competition when taxes and charges on air transport and related services are the highest in the world,” says Teffaha.
“Despite the fact that the problem is global in nature, it is crucial in the Arab world that governments revisit these taxes and charges – especially on short sectors where the value of the taxes and duties is almost equivalent to the price of the ticket.”
Source: FlightGlobal.com
