The Association notes that the African aviation market is operating at 93% of where the industry was in 2019, prior to COVID.
IATA says the African aviation industry has made great strides in its recovery from the impacts of COVID-19. Director General IATA, Willie Walsh says, “The outlook, when we look forward, is again quite positive. We expect passenger traffic in Africa to start really increasing over the next few years. By 2040, it will be more than twice where we are in 2019 and, indeed, by 2035, we’ll be about almost double where we were in 2019. So, again a positive outlook for the market when it looks at the passenger market in Africa.
But the potential for the aviation sector on the continent is massive. Africa has a population of some 1.4 billion people and a highly youthful population, which is why IATA expects significant growth in aviation numbers in due course. IATA Regional VP for Africa & Middle East, Kamil Al Awadhi says, “To help overcome all these challenges for the aviation industry in Africa, IATA’s launching the Focus Africa initiative and it’s a collaborative initiative, pooling together resources from across the aviation value chain to urgently address critical challenges hindering the advancement of aviation across Africa.”