• Algeria tops countries holding airlines’ blocked funds in Africa at $261 million followed by countries within the XAF Zone that are trapping $140 million.
• Ethiopia has $115 million in blocked funds for airlines while its neighbour Eritrea is sitting on $75 million.
• Zimbabwe closes the top five countries with blocked funds at $69 million.

Airlines across the world continue to struggle to repatriate their profits, with several African countries accounting for the bulk of blocked funds at $880 million. This amount, which represents 52 percent of the total $1.68 billion blocked funds globally continues to act as a hindrance to the growth of the industry post-Covid-19 fallout.

Data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has single out Algeria, the XAF Zone, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Zimbabwe as the top five countries in Africa where airlines are struggling to repatriate their profits.

Across Africa, Algeria tops among …

• African Airlines revenues for January 2024 were $ 1.83 billion compared to $1.56 billion in November 2023
• Available seats per kilometre (ASKs) also exceeded the level of March 2019 by 7.7 per cent.
• Open skies will boost intra-African connectivity and drive down airfares.

Investments among the continent’s carriers have begun to pay off as African Airlines Revenues and seat numbers hit a record high, a new report by African Airline Association (AFRAA) has shown.

The number of airline seats offered in the region has increased by 12.6 per cent to 16.1 million in March 2024, thanks to new routes and flight frequencies.

For the first time in four years, the industry surpassed pre-COVID-19 monthly figures of 14.3 million, recorded in March 2019.

The year 2024 is shaping up to be a significant year of recovery for the aviation industry. Airlines have regained their pre-Covid levels of capacity and traffic and …

The Entebbe airport stands to transform Uganda’s movement over time as it advances to become an oil economy alongside Tanzania.

South Africa, one of the wealthiest countries, has the largest road network, 750,000kms, while Tanzania, East Africa’s competitive economy, has more than 86,000km of roads.

In the current economic scenario, where uncertainty brought by economic shocks from the pandemic and political tensions force nations to expand their horizon of influence, the past years have shown why African infrastructures must be robust and conducive to enhancing value creation.

Whoever moves fast and swiftly dominates the economic conversation. South Africa, Kenya, Namibia and Nigeria are among the top African nations with more robust economies.…

South African Airways (SAA)—one of Africa’s largest carriers have gained a promising turn, as its administrators said conditions for a business rescue were met to bring the state-owned carrier back to operations.

According to information from Bloomberg News, the administrators did not provide any further notice to affected parties on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that “whether the government had met their demand to place in an escrow account $988 million the state has guaranteed to creditors should the carrier fail. The Treasury said on Monday its usual guarantees should suffice”

The SAA which was illustrated by News24 a South African business publication, that had a net asset value of nil in 1999 and since then has contended with a weak balance sheet exaggerated by weak management and a poor business model.

Further, the which SAA has received no less than $3 billion in bailouts or recapitalization over 20 years, starting from …

The aviation industry in Africa is expected to suffer a revenue loss of $8.103 billion this year due to COVID-19, according to a report by the African Airlines Association (AFRAA).

The analysis among the first series of study by AFRAA examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Africa’s air transport sector.

The African Airlines Association report shows that passenger revenue in the first quarter of this year dropped to $0.403 billion which represents 13.8 per cent year-over-year with more impact seen in Q2 2020 costing $2.740 billion.

Also Read: Air passengers travel confidence key to salvaging African airlines

According to the AFRAA analysis, air transport recovery is expected to start from Q3 2020 with domestic operations taking the lead followed by regional and international flights.

For the month of May, the report shows that the aviation industry recorded a 90.3 per cent year on year passenger traffic reduction.

According …

South African aviation industry, which is also one of the regions largest carrier is facing challenging setbacks, including the current state of the SA Express—which is state-owned, which just slid from a liquidation process, as a judge granted its three-month delay, pending anticipated government intervention, according to information Reuters.

Saved by the possibility of an investor

After several rescue attempts, June 9 was the set court date—hence, due to the possibility of a potential investor—which the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) claim to have an investor from the United Arab Emirates potentially interested in buying a stake in SA Express, the issue has been postponed until September 9, according to information from News24.

According to the laws of South African regarding foreign ownership in domestic airlines, the “potential” investor is limited to 25 per cent. Hence—as the unions did not …

The African aviation is at a standstill according to a report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

According to IATA’S report, on May, 12^th African flights were operating at just six per cent of the level of January 2020. The report also states that African airlines total loss of revenue is at around $6 billion so far which means a GDP loss of about $28 billion and three million job loss in the industry.

Many African airlines have gone into administrations including  South African Airways, South African Express, Air Mauritius and South Africa’s Comair with others also expected to follow suit. Air Mauritius noted that the objective of going into voluntary administration is to safeguard the interests of the company and re-engineer its activities so it can take off again once this crisis is over.

Some of the airlines in African had already been struggling before the COVID-19 …

Africa is set to become one of the fastest-growing regions for aviation in the next 20 years with an annual expansion of nearly 5 per cent, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), this growth is being driven by African and international carriers adding more routes on the continent and scaling up their operations by acquiring or getting partnerships with other airlines operating in the region.

Turkish Airlines in the past decade tripled the number of African cities it serves from 18 to 56, while other Middle Eastern, European and Asian airlines, are adding routes as well.

Meanwhile, other African carriers are rushing to raise capital to fund their expansion, by offering to sell stakes in their companies to other airlines on the continent.

Like in 2018 Ethiopian Airline, the continent’s largest airline by revenue and profit signed a deal to …