The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)—one of the continent’s most structured and prosperous regional organizations—is moving up a gear as of January 1. From that date, all member states (currently 12) will abolish air-transport taxes and cut passenger and security charges by 25%.
Implementation of this major reform will be monitored by the ECOWAS Commission through a Regional Economic Monitoring Mechanism for air transport. Each member state had until 30 November to submit to the Commission the legal and regulatory measures adopted to transition toward abolishing taxes and reducing charges.
The details are set out in a letter sent in early November by Commission President Umar Alieu Turay to the aviation minister of each affiliated country. As a result, taxes on airline tickets, tourism and “solidarity” levies will be banned across ECOWAS air transport from 1 January 2026.
Chris Appiah, the Commission’s Director of Transport, told RFI that the next step—after taxes are eliminated and fees trimmed—will be a drop in the fares charged by airlines, in other words, lower ticket prices. That would be a logical outcome, given that local carriers will no longer have to pay these taxes and fees to governments.
Mr Turay has urged ECOWAS member governments not to introduce new airport charges or taxes that could undermine a momentum the Commission president is counting on to boost regional integration.
The remaining question is whether Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are covered by the scheme. It is worth recalling that these countries—following coups that ousted presidents elected by universal suffrage, it bears noting—ultimately decided to leave the regional organization to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), described as an empty shell. ECOWAS had nevertheless significantly softened its demands on a return to constitutional order in an effort to persuade them to stay, without success.
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