SUDAN’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE Growth in seats for travel between Sudan and South Sudan tripled between 2001 and 2007. The Diio SRS shows that in 2007, while there were 219,741 seats for travel within Sudan, there were only 696 seats advertised for South Sudan (table 8) These figures may mask the fact that traffic between the two regions has actually grown rather significantly—from 24,452 seats in 2001 to 87,191 in 2007. How much of that traffic is hub traffic through Khartoum traveling between points in South Sudan is not known.

**Table 8. Benchmarking air transport indicators for Sudan and select other countries**<sup>**4**</sup>

|Country|Sudan|Ethiopia|Chad|CAR|Kenya|Egypt|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Traffic (2007)|||||||
|Domestic travel (‘000 seats per year, excluding south)|218|729|n.a.|n.a.|2,093|5,959|
|International travel within Africa (‘000 seats per year)|302|1,837|110|21|3,145|1,886|
|Intercontinental travel (‘000 seats per year)|2,052|2,005|89|24|2,755|15,793|
|Seats available per 100 people|9.8|5.8|1.8|1|21|27.5|
|Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index—air transport market (%)|15.29|70.61|36.35|50.26|39.47|24|
|Quality|||||||
|Percent of seat-km in newer aircraft|71.9|98.5|99.5|100|80.2|90.7|
|Percent of seat-km in medium or smaller aircraft|72|39.7|93.6|23.5|20.8|51.2|
|Percent of carriers passing IATA/IOSA audit|0|100|0|0|11.1|50|
|FAA/IASA audit status|No audit|Passed|No audit|0|0|Passed|

_Source:_ Bofinger 2009.

_Note:_ The Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index (HHI) is a commonly accepted measure of market concentration. It is calculated by squaring the market share of each firm competing in the market and then summing the resulting numbers. A HHI of 100 indicates the market is a monopoly; the lower the HHI, the more diluted the market power exerted by one company/agent.

FAA = U.S. Federal Aviation Administration; IASA = International Aviation Safety Assessment; IATA = International Air Transport Association; IOSA = IATA International Safety Audit; CAR = Central African Republic. n.a. = Not applicable.

# **Challenges**

Existing air connectivity in Sudan is largely oriented toward the Middle East and Egypt. Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) is used as the main connecting point to transit to the rest of Africa, while Sudan has, for example, no direct flights from Khartoum to Kampala (table 9).

There is a lack of regulatory oversight in the air transport sector. A number of small, domestic carriers, registered generally as charter airlines, are operational. These operators may act as scheduled carriers, but do not report information to a booking or ticket sales agency. Often such operators in countries with poor oversight pose an air safety problem as they operate aircraft maintained on minimal budgets, with maintenance crew and pilots whose skills may not be consistent with international standards. The percentage of seats in Sudan flown on newer aircraft is smaller than its neighbors, creating additional safety risks.

> 4 All data are as of 2007 based on estimations and computations of scheduled advertised seats, as published by the Diio SRS Analyzer. This captures 98 percent of worldwide traffic, but a percentage of African traffic is not captured by these data.

> <sup>20</sup>