Investments among the African airlines have begun to pay off as revenues and seat numbers hit record highs, a new report by the African Airline Association has shown.
The number of airline seats offered in the region has increased by 12.6 percent, to 16.1 million in March 2024, thanks to new routes and flight frequencies.
The industry has for the first time in four years surpassed pre-covid-19 monthly figures of 14.3 million recorded in March 2019.
The year 2024 is shaping up to be a significant year of recovery for the aviation industry as Airlines have not only regained their pre-COVID levels of capacity and traffic but have also surpassed them, marking a notable turnaround.
Kenya's national carrier has in the past three months re-introduced flights to Somalia, and UAE increasing its frequencies for the New York route.
“African carriers accounted for 49.5 percent of the international capacity and 35.9 percent of the intercontinental capacity. AFRAA estimates that passenger traffic carried by African operators in 2024 will be about 98 million,” the association said in the monthly update.
Over the same period, Available seats per kilometre (ASKs) also exceeded the level of March 2019 by 7.7 percent.
Available seat per kilometre measures the airline's flight passenger carrying capacity.
It is the total number of available seats multiplied by the number of kilometres travelled.
In terms of the capacity split between African and non-African operators on both regional and intercontinental routes, AFRAA estimates 50.7 percent and 49.3 percent respectively.
Further disaggregation of capacity on only the intercontinental routes reveals a much lower share of 35.7 percent for Africa against 64.3 percent for non-African operators.
Though continent-wide intra-African connectivity exceeded pre-Covid level since December 2022, major hubs like Johannesburg and Casablanca are yet to reach 2019 levels.
Similar to traffic growth, African airlines are also seeing improved revenue performance.
AFRAA estimated revenue for January 2024 was US$ 1.83 billion (Sh238 billion) compared to US$1.56 billion (Sh202.8 billion) in November 2023 indicating revenue growth of 14.75 percent.
According to AFRAA Open skies will boost intra-African connectivity, drive down airfares, and stimulate air traffic and revenue growth across the continent as well as create jobs.
