African aviation: Should governments own their own airlines?No standard solutions exist nor are there any examples of well-managed government-owned airlines. But it is widely believed that in the medium to long term the remaining national airlines in Africa should be privatized. There is a natural conflict of interest between governments and airlines since they usually pursue different aims. Governments that still own airlines should therefore consider gradually divesting their stakes in national carriers in order to pave the way for a private enterprise corporate governance model which will allow management to base all its decisions on economic facts rather than on political ones. |
