According to the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), African airlines are recovering steadily and recorded increased traffic and capacity in March.

The data shows that traffic carried by African airlines reached 94.8 per cent of the full-year 2019 level in the month as more international routes reopened.

According to AFRAA, the domestic market share of the traffic was 37%, the intra-African market share was 31%, and the international market share was 32%.

The Association predicts that by the end of 2023, African airlines would have carried 85 million passengers in total, almost 10 million fewer than they did for the entire year of 2019.

According to AFRAA data, African airlines' overall number of intercontinental flights has increased since pre-Covid levels in October 2022 as of March 2023.

“In 8 African airports (Johannesburg, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Lusaka, Cairo, Casablanca, Abidjan and Lome) intra-Africa connectivity reached or exceeded pre-Covid level since December 2022,” AFRAA noted.

The airline revenue gap is also expected to close in 2023 compared to 2022, according to AFRAA.

African airlines fell USD0.3 billion short of the levels reached in a comparable time in 2019 in the first three months.

According to AFRAA, this is anticipated to decrease even more in the second quarter to USD 0.2 billion.

“Though the full-year estimated revenue gap is yet to be computed, it appears 2023 will be a better year compared to the prior year,” AFRAA noted.

The 2022 full-year revenue loss was US$3.5 billion for all African airlines combined.