Aviation experts discussed the challenge of funding airlines in Africa and questioned the sustainability of African airlines growth at the Aviation Africa event held recently in Johannesburg.
Raphael Haddad , President of Jetcraft Commercial, said the industry must congratulate African airlines for making a collective nett profit in 2024 for the second year in a row. IATA has described the profit as razor-thin and well below the global benchmark.
Data from IATA showed that African airlines were making an average of US$0.90c per passenger. This is an improvement on results two years ago, when African airlines were losing US$1 for each passenger. But its still behind the global profit average of US$6.14.
We have seen a really big improvement in terms of airline performance because the demand is there. I think a lot of airlines in Africa want to service this market, so we are seeing a lot of growth, said Thato Matsha , Senior Aviation Finance Consultant at Investec Bank.
The improvement in profit was credited to the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative by Aaron Munetsi , CEO of Airlines Association of Southern Africa, Not everyone understands what SAATM is meant to do. It is not a tick-box exercise, it is a work in progress. Going from losing a dollar to making a dollar: that is progress, that shows that SAATM is working, he said.
