According to the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), African airlines are expected to transport 85 million passengers by the end of 2023, about 10 million short of the full-year 2019 passenger traffic. The total number of intercontinental routes operated by African airlines exceeded pre-COVID levels since October 2022. In August 2023, traffic carried by African airlines reached 98.4% of the 2019 level.
The African aviation industry has been recovering from the pandemic and is on track to reach pre-COVID levels. In March 2023, the traffic carried by African airlines reached 94.8% of the full-year 2019 level. Domestic market share was 37%, intra-Africa at 31%, and intercontinental at 32%. In 8 African airports (Johannesburg, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Lusaka, Cairo, Casablanca, Abidjan, and Lome), intra-Africa connectivity reached or exceeded pre-COVID levels since December 2022. The year 2023 is witnessing a narrowing of the airline revenue gap compared to 2022. In the first 3 months of the year, African airlines missed the levels attained in a similar period in 2019 by US$0.3 billion. This is expected to further narrow in the second quarter to US$0.2 billion according to AFRAA. Though the full-year estimated revenue gap is yet to be computed, 2023 will be a better year than the prior year. The 2022 full-year revenue loss was US$3.5 billion for all African airlines combined.
Jet A1 price continued the downward trend in March with the global average price per barrel in the last week of March reaching US$102.5. However, this trend changed to a surge in April following the OPEC producers’ announcement of plans to cut crude output.
AFRAA has requested meetings with some central bank Governors and will soon meet them to agree on a solution to the problem of blocked funds. Nigeria, with US$743 million of airline-blocked funds, is currently ranked the second highest in the world after Venezuela. An AFRAA survey indicates that 3 African airlines alone have about US$44.2 million blocked in Nigeria. These 3 AFRAA airlines have a total of US$88.9 million blocked in 12 African countries at the end of 2022.
Aside from Nigeria, other African countries with blocked funds at the end of 2022 include Algeria, Libya, Cameroon, The Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Conakry, Burundi, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
According to the Secretary General of AFRAA, Abdérahmane Berthé, “It is unacceptable for some States to hold on to airline generated revenues that are badly needed to cover operating costs and yet expect operations to continue undisrupted. The longer these funds are held, the bigger the financial burden these States impose on airlines supporting air connectivity and economic activities in these countries” .
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