African airlines set to lose R11bn this year

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African airlines are expected to post a loss of $638 million (R11 billion) in 2022, narrowing to a loss of $213 million in 2023, according to the latest outlook by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 

This year there was passenger demand growth of 27.4% among African airlines, which outpaced capacity growth of 21.9%. 

IATA expects that in 2023 the African region will serve 86.3% of pre-financial crisis demand levels and reach 83.9% of pre-financial crisis capacity.

"Africa is particularly exposed to macro-economic headwinds which have increased the vulnerability of several economies and rendered connectivity more complex," states IATA.

In looking at the air cargo market in Africa, IATA points out this is usually a handy barometer of trade in high-value goods. In October this year, African airlines, which account for 1.9 percent of the global air cargo market, saw cargo volumes decrease by 8.3% compared with October 2021. For IATA this was a signifiant drop from the 0.1% growth recorded in September 2022

Furthermore, cargo capacity shrank to 7.4% below October 2021 levels.