Africa Archives - Aviation metric

IATA: Aviation taxes in Africa are 15% higher than the global average

Posted on April 29, 2026April 29, 2026 by Wole Shadare

Accident rate highest among all regions The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has recently intensified its advocacy for African governments to integrate aviation as a pillar of their national economic strategies. Meanwhile, the clearing house for more than 300 global airlines lamented that the cost of doing business in African aviation is high. Removing roadblocks to ease doing business, it noted, is essential for aviation to thrive. A key element of this is the taxes…

African aviation’s tech spend isn’t delivering full value – SITA report

Posted on April 15, 2026April 15, 2026 by Wole Shadare

The latest SITA Air Transport IT Insights report for 2025/2026 highlights a critical paradox in the African aviation sector: while IT spending is on the rise, the full value of these investments is being choked by systemic and structural bottlenecks. The 2025 report identifies poor data integration as the single largest barrier to ROI. Airlines and airports are spending a record $50.8 billion globally on IT. The African Reality: While 83% of airlines prioritise data-driven…

Munetsi: Africa’s limited aircraft pool reflects regulatory, economic constraints

Posted on April 7, 2026April 7, 2026 by Wole Shadare

..airlines struggle to scale, expand routes, compete globally The stark contrast in the scale of global aviation was a central theme at the recently held Nigerian Aircraft Acquisition and Investment Summit (NAAIS) in Lagos. Industry leaders, including Aaron Munetsi, CEO of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA), highlighted a sobering reality: the entire African continent, home to 54 countries and 1.4 billion people, operates a commercial fleet of fewer than 1,000 aircraft. He argued…

175 new routes across Africa opened in three years

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Wole Shadare

The Secretary-General of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), Adefunke Adeyemi, said 175 new air routes, often rounded or projected to higher figures in broader sectoral discussions, have been opened across the continent over the past three years. This expansion is a direct result of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative, which aims to liberalise African skies. She highlighted this milestone during her address at the Nigeria Aviation African Investment Summit (NAAIS) in…

Air Finance: Breaking the African risk premium

Posted on March 17, 2026March 17, 2026 by Wole Shadare

With the AfDB and Afreximbank acting as the first loss guarantors, the private sector is finally finding the courage to invest in African skies, writes WOLE SHADARE For decades, the story of African aviation has been written in red ink, hampered by a risk premium that forced local carriers to pay up to 25% more for aircraft than their global peers. But as of March 2026, the script is being rewritten. A new, continent-wide financial policy…

IATA: Despite drop, Africa tops air accident rate globally

Posted on March 9, 2026 by Wole Shadare

Region recorded seven accidents in 2025, Middle East, North Africa, with one accident 51 crashes across 38.7 million flights The International Air Transport Association (IATA) 2025 Annual Safety Report, released on, confirms that the African region (AFI) recorded seven accidents during the 2025 calendar year. While this number represents a significant improvement in the regional accident rate compared to 2024, Africa continues to have the highest accident rate among global regions. The report highlights a…

Why Africa’s ‘Open Skies’ Remain Locked in the Hangar

Posted on February 24, 2026February 24, 2026 by Wole Shadare

The message from the industry is clear: Africa no longer needs more signatures; it needs schedules. Without enforcement mechanisms to hold non-compliant signatories accountable, SAATM risks becoming another paper tiger in a continent desperate for connectivity, writes WOLE SHADARE For nearly a decade, the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) has been hailed as the holy grail of African aviation—a flagship project of the AU’s Agenda 2063 designed to dismantle the restrictive bilateral walls that…

Africa’s aviation caught in ‘profitless’ growth cycle

Posted on February 10, 2026 by Wole Shadare

The phrase “more passengers” has become a bitter pill for many African airline owners. While a 6.0% surge in traffic sounds like a success story, the underlying economics of the continent act as a profit siphon, ensuring that most of that revenue never reaches the bottom line, writes WOLE SHADARE Africa’s aviation industry is defined by a striking paradox: it is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing traffic demand, yet it remains the least profitable…

How conflicts impact Africa, Middle-East global aviation profitability

Posted on January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 by Wole Shadare

Africa remains the least profitable aviation region globally. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts that African carriers will generate just $200 million in net profit in 2026—a marginal 1.3% profit margin compared to the global average of $7.90 per passenger. The conflicts in the continent and the Middle-East have the potential to do more damage to aviation profitability, writes WOLE SHADARE The continent has seen conflicts in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Libya, and…

ValueJet Unveils VIKI – Africa’s First Full-Scale Airline AI Concierge To Transform Passenger Experience

Posted on January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 by Wole Shadare

ValueJet, Nigeria’s innovative airline, has officially launched VIKI, an AI-powered digital concierge designed to transform how passengers access flight services, making it the first airline in Africa to deploy such technology at scale. VIKI is a multilingual, text- and voice-enabled AI assistant that responds verbally to voice commands, offering enhanced accessibility for visually impaired users. Through popular messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, passengers can book and manage flights, modify reservations, check in online,…

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