African airlines have returned to almost their entire pre-pandemic network (AFRAA)
Air traffic continues to recover in Africa. To date, African airlines have resumed operations on 99.2% of the routes operated before the pandemic. The information comes from the Association of African Airlines (AFRAA) which published on Wednesday 12 October 2022 the traffic performance for the month of September.
According to the Association, "eight African airlines have surpassed the number of international routes they operated before the health crisis".
From last month's breakdown, it appears that airline traffic and capacity reached 82.52% and 82.1% of 2019 levels respectively. In detail, the domestic market share is now 39.5% of capacity and 32.8% of passengers carried (against 2019 volumes). In the intra-African segment, the proportion is 24% compared to 29.5%. Intercontinental traffic reached 36.5% of pre-pandemic capacity against 37.6% of traffic.
AFRAA, which has 44 member airlines, now estimates the loss in revenue for African carriers for 2022 at USD 3.5 billion, or 20% of 2019 revenue. This is a clear improvement on the losses in 2020 (USD 10.21 billion) and 2021 (USD 8.6 billion).
However, it cannot be ruled out that the continuing rise in the price of paraffin will erode the results of the carriers. Since the beginning of the year, the average world price of a barrel of fuel is $142. The impact on the fuel bill of the world's airlines is estimated at $131.6 billion for the full year, AFRAA reports.
