African Airlines Restoring Capacity, Profitability Remains Challenging in the Region-CAPA

Air travel in Africa continues to build rapidly towards pre-pandemic volumes, CAPA reported:

• African Airlines Association (AFRAA) reports that traffic handled by airlines in Africa for Mar-2023 reached 94.8% – or pre-pandemic (Mar-2019) levels.
• African air traffic was split between domestic markets (37%), intra-Africa travel (31%), and intercontinental travel (32%) in Mar-2023.
• Scheduled seat capacity in Africa now above pre-pandemic levels, reaching around 4.5 million seats per week in early Apr-2023.
• Filed forward schedules indicate that regional capacity will continue to grow compared to pre-pandemic volumes.
• IATA expects that airlines in Africa will suffer a collective net loss of USD213 million over the year, taking post-COVID-19 losses to approximately 3.75 billion.

Top 10 African country markets by weekly seats (Mar-2023)

1. Egypt +40.7%
2. Morocco +0.3%
3. Ethiopia 17.7%
4. South Africa -25.5%
5. Algeria -14.8%
6. Kenya -6.4%
7. Nigeria +43.7%
8. Tunisia -4.3%
9. Sudan +16.7%
10. Mauritius -9.9%

_{Source: CAPA-Center for Aviation and OAG}