Aviation sector in Africa on the road of recovery post COVID-19 Era

NAIROBI, Kenya - African Airlines Association (AFRAA) –a continental aviation lobby group has revealed in its report that the African airline industry is on the recovery road post-COVID-19 era.

The AFRAA findings state that Ethiopian Airlines is the top-performing airline in the continent.

“We have witnessed eight African airlines that have exceeded the number of international routes they operated before the Covid-19 pandemic, This is in the wake of improving travel space. Ethiopian Airlines leads the pack of airlines that exceeded initial routes. The state-owned carrier reported a 79 percent jump in revenue to $5 billion.”AFRAA statement reads.

Ethiopian airline profit grew 90 percent to $937 million at a time when a number of African carriers remained posting losses.

Egyptair, Tunisian airline –Nouvelair, Air Cairo, and Moroccan low-cost airline–Air Arabia Marco are also some of the other aviation players that have reported a positive expansion of their routes.

The others are Lome, Togo, headquartered Pan African airline – Asky airlines, Air Arabia Egypt, and Nile Air also from Egypt.
AFRAA data reveals that in September the continent’s traffic and airlines capacity deployed reached 82.52 percent and 82.1 percent, respectively, of the 2019 level.

The association further reveals that “African airlines have now resumed operations to 99.2 percent of routes operated before the pandemic with the eight exceeding the number of international routes they operated before COVID-19”.

Domestic market share now stands at 39.5 percent capacity and 32.8 percent of passengers carried, while intra-Africa passengers carried represented 29.5 percent and corresponding capacity at 24 percent.

Despite the positive indication, the continent’s aviation industry is predicted to make a loss of $ 3.5 billion this year.

This is due to the third wave of COVID-19 that hit the continent in the third quarter that wiped out approximately $800 million of business.

This loss is however an improvement from the $ 10.21 billion reported in 2020, at the height of the pandemic.

With the resumption of global travel, the industry is expected to boost international trade amid the recovery of the aviation industry.

The total case count has reached 619 million globally with12.6 a million being in Africa.

The global recovery rate is placed at 98.9 percent.

Of this, only 22.3 percent of Africans have received at least one vaccine compared to the global average of 67.9 percent.

GAROWE ONLINE