African Air Travel Business Records Worst Month in April

By Adedapo Adesanya

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has disclosed that passenger traffic in African countries plunged as much as 98.7 percent in April, making it worst month for air travel so far.

According to AITA, the drop was nearly twice as bad as the 49.8 percent demand drop in March 2020 and a record in the history of modern air travel.

Capacity contracted by 87.7 percent and load factor fell by 65.3 percentage points to just 7.7 percent of seats filled, lowest among regions.

According to the body, the plunge was as a result of the coronavirus disease pandemic which led to the restrictions on both local and international flight as countries battle to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease pandemic.

However, IATA said that situations have started to look better as nations are beginning to ease the lockdown with cargo and evacuation flight services more frequent.

Across the globe, passenger demand in April plunged by 94.3 percent compared to April 2019. This is a rate of decline never seen in the history of IATA’s traffic series, which dates back to 1990.

More recently, figures show that daily flight total rose 30 percent between the low point on April 21 and May 27. This is primarily in domestic operations and off a very low base (5.7 percent of 2019 demand).

While this uptick is not significant to the global dimension of the air transport industry, it does suggest that the industry has seen the bottom of the crisis, provided there is no recurrence.

In addition, it is the very first signal of aviation beginning the likely long process of re-establishing connectivity.

IATA’s Director-General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Alexandre de Juniac, described April as a disaster for aviation as air travel almost entirely stopped.

“But April may also represent the nadir of the crisis. Flight numbers are increasing. Countries are beginning to lift mobility restrictions. And business confidence is showing improvement in key markets such as China, Germany, and the U.S. These are positive signs as we start to rebuild the industry from a stand-still. The initial green shoots will take time – possibly years to mature,” Mr de Juniac said.

IATA calculated that by the first week of April, governments in 75 percent of the markets tracked by IATA completely banned entry, while an additional 19 per cent had limited travel restrictions or compulsory quarantine requirements for international arrivals.