Intra-African passenger traffic remained well below domestic and international volumes during the second half of 2025, according to the African Airlines Association’s latest Routes and Connectivity Report.
AFRAA analysed estimated passenger traffic on the top 100 routes in each of three categories between 1 July and 31 December 2025, using data from OAG Traffic Analyser. The routes examined accounted for 26.8 million passengers across the domestic, intra-African and international segments.
Domestic routes carried 13.4 million passengers, compared with 9.3 million on international routes between Africa and destinations outside the continent. Intra-African routes accounted for 4.1 million passengers.
AFRAA cautioned that the figures cover only the 100 highest-ranked routes within each category and do not represent Africa’s complete route network. Smaller and emerging routes are consequently excluded from the analysis.
Cape Town–Johannesburg was the busiest route across all three categories, carrying 1.99 million passengers during the six-month period. Durban–Johannesburg ranked second with 1.39 million passengers.
The leading intra-African route was Tripoli Mitiga–Tunis, followed by Harare–Johannesburg, Mogadishu–Nairobi, Algiers–Tunis and Entebbe–Nairobi.
Johannesburg recorded the largest number of appearances among the top 100 intra-African routes, followed by Nairobi, with Tunis and Cairo also featuring prominently. AFRAA said much of the continent’s regional connectivity remains concentrated around a relatively small group of gateways rather than being distributed across a wider network of direct services between secondary markets.
Cairo was the only airport to rank among the five leading hubs in all three categories examined. It appeared eight times in the domestic network, 12 times in the intra-African network and 11 times among international routes.
Addis Ababa recorded the largest number of appearances in the domestic category, while Johannesburg led the intra-African ranking. Paris Orly headed the international hub ranking.
International traffic was heavily concentrated on routes connecting North Africa with France. Algiers–Paris Charles de Gaulle was the busiest international route, carrying 556,000 passengers, followed by Algiers–Paris Orly. Paris Orly–Réunion, Paris Orly–Tunis and Paris Orly–Marrakech completed the five leading international city pairs.
AFRAA’s network analysis showed a dense concentration of services linking Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria with France and wider Western Europe.
By comparison, long-haul connections between Europe and markets farther south on the African continent were represented by fewer routes and less network density.
The report also identified comparatively thin connectivity across parts of Central Africa. Its analysis of the active African route network showed limited route coverage across Chad, Niger and the Central African Republic.
Regional connectivity varied substantially between African subregions. Northern Africa recorded the highest internal connectivity rate at 74%, followed by Southern Africa at 49%, Eastern Africa at 48%, Central Africa at 45% and Western Africa at 44%.
Connections between regions remained considerably lower. The strongest inter-regional result was between Northern and Western Africa at 34%, while connectivity between Southern and Western Africa was recorded at 3%.
Passenger flows on the routes analysed were generally balanced between both directions. Average directional imbalance was 2.6% for domestic routes, 2.9% for intra-African services and 1.7% for international routes.
The largest domestic imbalance was recorded between Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar at 20.5%, while Nairobi–Zanzibar recorded the highest intra-African imbalance at 12.2%. Hurghada–Zurich was the most imbalanced international route at 7.3%.
AFRAA said the 4.1 million passengers recorded on the leading intra-African routes remained low relative to domestic and international volumes, reflecting the wider gap in connectivity within the continent. The association said continued implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market could support additional city-pair connections and improve access between underserved African markets.
Among its recommendations, AFRAA called for assessment of right-sized aircraft on lower-volume and underserved intra-African routes, closer monitoring of SAATM implementation and fifth-freedom opportunities, and further analysis to establish whether the concentration of international traffic on the North Africa–France corridor represents a persistent market pattern or reflects the six-month reporting period.
