The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) aims to implement its Free Route Airspace (FRA) project in East Africa and Southern Africa by the end of 2026, expanding an initiative designed to allow airlines to fly more direct routes and cut operating costs and emissions, according to secretary-general Abdérahmane Berthé.

Already operational in West and Central Africa since October 2025, the project enables airlines to plan and fly user-preferred routes rather than follow fixed air corridors, reducing flight times, fuel burn, and carbon emissions.

"We are happy to say, since last October, it's effective in West and Central Africa," Berthé told a media briefing on the sidelines of the 14th AFRAA Stakeholders Convention in Johannesburg on May 18. "What is the benefit for African airlines? It's reducing cost and reducing CO2 emissions because of direct flight."

AFRAA is now preparing to roll out the system across the east and south of the continent, with talks planned this week involving the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and regional civil aviation authorities to begin trial phases, Berthé said.

"We are starting now to implement the same in the East and Southern region," he said. "Our objective is to implement it by the end of 2026."

The initiative comes as African aviation leaders push to unite the continent’s fragmented air transport system and improve connectivity under AFRAA's longstanding advocacy for liberalised skies. Berthé said Africa had moved beyond identifying problems to needing implementation.

"It is time to execute," he said. "We all know the challenges, we all know the solutions. Some solutions in terms of policy are there, like SAATM [Single African Air Transport Market], AfCFTA [African Continental Free Trade Area], and visa openness. The problem is execution."

Berthé also highlighted persistent challenges in enforcing the continent’s air liberalisation agenda under the African Union-backed SAATM, saying national sovereignty and weak compliance mechanisms continued to delay progress.

"In Europe, when they decide, they implement, because if you don’t implement, you have sanctions," he said. "In Africa, there is no sanction."

He pointed to delays in implementing a directive by West African heads of state to reduce aviation taxes and charges by 25% from January 2026, noting that only Côte d'Ivoire had recently announced reductions.

"We really need to resolve this sovereignty constraint," Berthé said, warning that decades of aviation liberalisation efforts, from the Yamoussoukro Declaration in 1988 to SAATM in 2018, had faltered because countries sign agreements but fail to comply.