Africa’s air passenger traffic is at 73.8% of pre-pandemic levels, with robust recoveries from three of the continent’s four sub-regions being dragged down by the loss of flight capacity in southern Africa.

Speaking at the Aviation Africa 2022 summit in Kigali, Kamil Al-Awadhi, Iata Regional Vice President for Africa and Middle East, pointed out that air traffic in East Africa had risen to 93.4% of July 2019 levels and North Africa to 93.1%, while West Africa had already surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 8.7%.

“It is quite different in southern Africa where traffic remains over 36.5% lower than before the pandemic — although the reduced capacity can be attributed to airlines having gone out of business, one suspending its operations and what was the sub-region’s largest, shrinking its fleet, network and schedule by more than 80%,” said Al-Awadhi, referring to the demises of SA Express and Air Namibia, the grounding of Comair’s regional fleet and the continued struggles at SAA. 

While airlines worldwide lost a combined US$42 billion last year, Iata’s outlook for 2022 sees the global loss reduced to $9.7 billion for the year and a return to industry-wide profit in 2023, with Africa on track to follow by the end of 2024.

Billions in unused and withheld funds 

Al-Awadhi criticised African leaders for failing to utilise US$30 billion in pledges from governments and financial institutions that Iata helped to secure for air transport and tourism support in Africa during the pandemic. 

“Disappointingly, most of this relief failed to reach those in need.  And many African countries ignored our urgent pleas to provide other forms of relief through reductions and waivers of statutory charges, levies, taxes and user-fees. Airlines faced unprecedented losses, and some didn’t survive the financial pressures of the pandemic.” 

By the end of June 2022, more than $1.3 billion in funds were being withheld from airlines by governments across 12 African countries, in contravention of international civil aviation protocol. 

“Airlines cannot be expected to fly if they cannot realise the revenue from ticket sales. Any loss of air connectivity harms the local economy, hurts investor confidence, jeopardises jobs, livelihoods and social fabric. The loss of air connectivity due to the pandemic was severe; there is no reason African countries should suffer further disruptions because of airline blocked funds,” said Al-Awadhi. 

In late August, Nigeria moved to release $265 million in blocked funds to airlines, around half of what it was withholding. 

“We continue to engage with governments withholding airlines’ funds. We urge other fund-blocking countries to follow Nigeria’s example and expedite the full release of all airlines’ revenues they are currently withholding,” said Al-Awadhi. 

Post-pandemic challenges

Al-Awadhi said the outlook for the airline industry was positive but the business environment remained challenging, with the unprecedented price of jet fuel presenting the biggest obstacle.

“For the year to date, the price of jet fuel has averaged $143 a barrel. This means airlines will spend $133 billion more for fuel in 2022 than they did last year.” 

Al-Awadhi warned that Africa should also have contingency plans in place to deal with sudden high passenger volumes, something that had disrupted operations at airports in Europe, the US and Australia. 

“While we have not seen this kind of chaos in Africa, airports, air navigation services and civil aviation authorities across the continent must be prepared for the growing number of travellers as recovery continues in Africa.”

To address challenges with intra-African air connectivity, Al-Awadhi urged governments to follow through with their commitments in implementing the Single Africa Air Transport Market and the African Continental Free Trade Area. 

“Connectivity is precious.  The crisis has demonstrated that everybody suffers when aviation stops. COVID-19 has dispelled the myth that flying only benefits the rich.  A financially viable air transport sector supports jobs and must be a driving force for Africa’s economic recovery from COVID-19,” Al-Awadhi said.