Airlines
Air Transport Development in Africa Hinges on Collaboration
As African airlines lose a projected $213 million this year, efforts to liberalize go unfulfilled.
Rwandair CEO Yvonne Makolo
Yvonne Makolo, CEO of RwandAir and first female chair of the IATA board of governors, laments the protectionist policies of some African countries. (Photo: Flickr: Creative Commons (BY-ND) by BreakingTravelNews)

A huge untapped potential for air transport development in Africa continues to go unrealized as infrastructure constraints, high costs, lack of connectivity, regulatory impediments, slow adoption of global standards, and skills shortages affect African airlines’ viability. As a result, from 2020 to 2022, the continent’s carriers suffered cumulative losses of $3.5 billion and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) projects losses of $213 million this year.

Solutions remain difficult to implement given the failure of governments to sufficiently collaborate on raising Africa’s standards of governance, for example. Still, IATA sees fertile ground for progress given that Africa accounts for 18 percent of the global population, yet only 2.1 percent of the world’s air transport activity.