It is time to cut through the noise. African aviation’s 2024 report card reads like a gifted student with a chronic habit of forgetting to do their homework. The potential remains, but the results often fail to live up to expectations. Sure, the continent’s share of global air traffic in 2024 inched up from 2.1% to 2.2% according to IATA, a microscopic gain if we want to be generous, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves with the congratulations. The real positive news comes from looking deeper into the numbers, as Africa recorded a 13.4% growth in absolute traffic numbers. Nonetheless, load factors remain stuck at a dismal 74% while the rest of the world cruises at 80% and more. Africa still loves the theatre of a half-empty widebody painted with the national flag rumbling down the runway, and success is often benchmarked by how much money can be squandered on acquiring the latest toys rather than on learning how to use them profitably.
Africa’s aviation infrastructure remains held together by duct tape, prayers, and the occasional fallout from outrage after a particularly egregious situation. Let’s consider South Africa, the continent’s largest and supposedly most advanced aviation market as an example. In a salute to the fuel queues that African motorists often must endure to top up their tanks, the busiest airport in Africa, Johannesburg’s OR Tambo, has recently been afflicted with Jet A-1 shortages yet again, something that Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) assure us annually that they have addressed, until next year’s crisis comes along. Baggage system failures are so common that the “backup” manual sortation system runs almost in parallel to the standard process. Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS), the agency charged with Air Traffic Control services, has failed to recertify instrument approach procedures at multiple airports, resulting in the need to delay and divert flights in poor weather conditions despite expensive equipment being installed. Even the poor South African Weather Service (SAWS) has had their forecasting system hacked, resulting in the need for pilots to check weather reports on social media pages rather than through official channels prior to each departure. Yet, the industry plods onward. These aren’t glitches, but rather systemic failures. We have lowered our standards so far that mediocrity begins to be seen in a positive light.
The rest of Africa is not immune to these infrastructural challenges either. For every planned multi-billion-dollar mega project like the one in Ethiopia, there are stalled plans all over the continent. Kenya’s proposed partnership with India’s Adani Airports to redevelop Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi was terminated after much controversy and allegations of impropriety on both sides of the deal. Malawi has revived plans to actually begin construction on Orton Chirwa International Airport in the northern city of Mzuzu, a project whose groundbreaking took place nearly a decade ago. It took the crash of a military aircraft carrying the Vice President of the country that was destined for the current unfit-for-purpose airstrip there to galvanize that project back into action. We cannot allow blood to be the financing instrument for improvements to aviation infrastructure anymore. African aviation safety has crossed that Rubicon a while ago.
Access to capital, both financial and human, remains a challenge for African aviation. An obvious solution seems to be cross-border investment and partnerships, and several high-profile and low-profile projects over the past year have highlighted this. Qatar Airways’ 25% investment in South Africa’s Airlink drew the most attention, but their quiet support of their other proposed investment in Rwandair is actually having the larger impact. With a handful of managers from Doha on secondment now in Kigali, that perpetual sponge of taxpayer funds is finally beginning to prioritise commercially focused decisions over national pride. On a much smaller scale, the launch of Air Sierra Leone, a hitherto tiny operation funded by the private sector in partnership with XEJet of Nigeria, shows that cooperation doesn’t have to be at intergovernmental level. Yet despite these positives, the imbroglio in South Africa over flySafair’s ownership structure remains a warning that the regulatory environment in many African countries doesn’t always welcome globalisation. Archaic and pernickety regulations on ownership and control are remnants of a past age rather than enlightened policymaking with an eye to the future.
Finally, visa regulations have slowly but steadily made progress in the background. After less than a year, Kenya has rolled back their controversial changes to require most Africans to obtain a “not-a-visa” paid Electronic Travel Authorisation to visit the country. Ghana, which continues to promise an eVisa system “coming soon” nearly two decades after first proposing it, has gone one step further and waived visas for all African Union member state visitors. Even South Africa, a constant whipping boy for its previously dysfunctional visa systems, has reformed thoroughly under new ministerial direction, with the Department of Home Affairs clearing a huge visa backlog and processing new tourist eVisa applications in a matter of weeks. Baby steps, but positive ones nonetheless.
African aviation isn’t perfect but its alive. Like a minibus driver dodging the potholes on most African roads, it finds a way to keep moving forward despite the obstacles. I expect to see this resilience continue to shine through in 2025. Happy travels!
Sean Mendis has two decades of experience in senior management roles within the aviation sector in Africa. He is presently based in Malawi, where he offers executive level consulting and intelligence to aviation stakeholders.
This Article was first published in the Issue 032 of VoyagesAfriq Travel Magazine
