Aviation in Developing Countries: Luxury or Necessity
Over the past three years our company has sold and delivered aircraft to small airlines operating in developing nations all over the world including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Zambia, Dominican Republic and Afghanistan. We have also sold and delivered aircraft to countries like Australia, Venezuela and Columbia who have developed economies and aviation systems that continue to grow as their economies grow.
There is a commonality in the demand for aviation in the developing countries and developed countries with geographic challenges:
• Air transportation is the safest way to move around in the country due to security issues outside the major cities.
• Poor highway infrastructure makes traveling by automobile difficult and time consuming. In some cases, we have seen a 120 mile trip by automobile could take as long as six hours when a trip in a regional turboprop airliner is 30 minutes
• Business development from the private sector and governmental and NGO activity is at a high level in developing countries as they try to build up their economy and infrastructure from a low base.
As I started thinking about this subject back in December and what I needed to say about it, I could have never imagined what would happen in Haiti and the impact of aviation on providing relief for that country in a terrible crisis. The good news has been that close to 200 flights a day have come into Haiti to provide supplies and rescue and medical personnel. The bad news is that more flights could have arrived had there been a more developed airport system in Haiti to handle the traffic.
Our company supports small airlines in Haiti, like Tortug Air, through providing heavy maintenance and parts. Those airlines are essential for the economic development and survival of that country. Connecting the cities of the geographically small country by air is not a luxury but a necessity due to the poor road infrastructure that exists. The short flight from the capital city of Port Au Prince to Cap Haitian on the north side of the island is only about 25 minutes but the drive is virtually impossible on the same route due to security issues.
In the United States, we are blessed with over 5500 public airports that we often take for granted. As I travel to other countries and look at their aviation support infrastructure, I try to imagine the impact that a good infrastructure and air service, even by small regional airlines or charter services, could have on their economic development. In the global economy, if the poorest countries cannot reach the rest of the world and the world cannot reach them, how can we expect them to ever grow and prosper?
Isolation from the world creates poverty and also tends to support the growth of terrorism. Aviation can do more to eliminate isolation than any form of transport in existence – something the leaders of the organizations like the World Bank, IMF, the UN and the world’s wealthy nations should consider.
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- Feb 4, 2010: uberVU - social comments
There is little doubt that developing countries see general aviation as an ABSOLUTE necessity. Such as with the situation in Haiti, isolated communities with no road or water access litterally live and die by the transport of needed goods and servcies by air. Though these countries may lack the resources for a sustained airline or scheduled service, general aviation in these countries fills the need perfectly with very little additional cost.
Even larger countries such as India and especially China are seeing the value in expanding their aviation reach. It was noted in a recent article that China is going to build nearly 100 new airports in the next ten years to reach all parts of a country which is larger than the United States. India has also had an expanding aviation network for many years as well, as these countries have grown and prospered. It can be argued that general aviation had a DIRECT hand in that growth and prospersity. In the developing nations, the aviation community not only brings benefits and services, but the acesss to new ideas and of course the growth of the community business through trade.
I believe that Haitian situation really shows what general aviation is capable of. I have personally seen professionals in the industry step up to help the people of Haiti with considerable money out of their own pockets. GA in the developing world can and will continue to grow and prosper both as a business and a tool of the betterment of those societies with help of such individuals. I certainly hope the governments of these developing countries are taking notice.