The Africa Airlines Association (AFRAA) said the full year revenue loss for African airlines in 2021 is forecasted at US$8.2b, approximately 47.2% of the full year 2019 airlines’ revenue. In 2020, African airlines made a cumulative loss of $10.21b, representing 58.8% of 2019 revenues.
AFRAA revealed that passenger traffic continues to be low across Africa due to the ravaging impact of COVID-19, inconsistencies in the messaging regarding border closures and failure to align health protocols in some countries and across regions.
AFRAA noted that in the month of August 2021, air passenger traffic reached 46.8% compared to same month in 2019 while capacity was at 54.6%.
Domestic markets across Africa recorded a slight reduction in passenger demand although still outperforming intra-Africa and intercontinental traffic. Domestic traffic for the month under review was 58.9% compared to 22.7% for intra-Africa and 18.4% for intercontinental. On passenger capacity (seats offered), domestic, intra-Africa and intercontinental accounted for 46.5%, 26.8% and 26.7% respectively.
Globally, the COVID 19 cases continue to rise despite the fact that 24.6% of the world’s population has been vaccinated. In Africa, just about 1.85% of the population has been fully vaccinated according to data available on the Africa CDC website. The Delta variant which is the source of recent infections is not sparing younger people either. The result is an increase in the number of younger people and children infected by the COV2 virus.
AFRAA said the re-start of operations on intercontinental routes by African airlines reached 77.8% in August 2021, though frequency and capacity remained constrained. This represents a month-on-month increase in intercontinental operations of 3.1%. Airlines which added new intercontinental routes to their operations in August include Ethiopian Airlines, Royal Air Maroc and Kenya Airways. It is worth noting that, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, Royal Air Maroc and RwandAir now operate to about 90% of their pre-COVID intercontinental destinations.
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