AFRAA discusses the African Development Bank’s $7 billion commitment to African airlines, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and progress on Free Route Airspace (FRA) following successful trials.
On the sidelines of the recently held Board of Airline Representatives of South Africa (BARSA) Summit 2026, the African Pilot team spoke with Maureen Kahonge, Director, Commercial & Communications at the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), about the outcomes of the recently concluded Airlines, Capital and Connectivity Forum, convened by the African Development Bank Group in partnership with AFRAA, as well as SAF development in Africa and the next steps for the Free Route Airspace (FRA) project following the success achieved in the Western and Central Africa (WACAF) region.
The Airlines, Capital and Connectivity Forum workshop brought together African airlines and various stakeholders to discuss how to make the African airline industry more attractive for investment and how to address the challenges that are contributing to African airlines being perceived as high risk. Discussions covered capacity-building gaps, fragmented policy and regulatory frameworks across Africa, issues related to blocked funds and their impact on airlines, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul requirements.
In response to these challenges, the African Development Bank has announced a US$7 billion investment to support the African airline industry.
At the same workshop, AFRAA also had the opportunity to include Afreximbank in the discussions, as one of the key outcomes was the development of a financing pool for airlines. There was a clear level of openness for collaboration between Afreximbank and AfDB.
The US$7 billion support will be directed towards capacity development and making finance available for fleet acquisition.
There is also recognition that more work is needed to make sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) available in Africa at competitive rates and to ensure that the supply chain is in place, allowing African airlines to access SAF within the continent.
In addition, Maureen shared progress on the Free Route Airspace (FRA) project following the successful trials conducted from November 2023 to May 2025.
The objective of these trials was to allow pilot airlines to operate User Preferred Routes (UPRs) to ascertain the safety and operational feasibility of these routes. Six airlines participated: EgyptAir and Royal Air Maroc in North Africa; Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines in East Africa; and ASKY and RwandAir across West, Central and East Africa.
Across 30 city pairs, the trials recorded fuel savings of 5,000 metric tonnes, as well as carbon emission reductions of 16,000 metric tonnes and total time savings of 1,400 hours, equivalent to almost two months.
Based on these results, African airlines could save approximately 50,000 metric tonnes of fuel using UPRs under FRA in the Western and Central African region.
Eastern and Southern Africa are the next regions targeted for implementation. The process will follow the same approach of trials and workshops, supported by Afreximbank, with the aim of progressing towards FRA across these regions by the end of the year.
The Integrated Aviation Transformation Program (IATP) for Africa is a continental modernisation and financing platform is aligned with the African Union’s Continental Aviation Infrastructure Investment Plan, which targets mobilising $30 billion. The IATP will be anchored in $7 billion Aviation Financing and Connectivity Facility (AFCF) that will mobilise private and institutional capital at scale to build an integrated, safe, competitive, and climate-aligned African aviation ecosystem.
