Kamil Al-Awadhi of IATA says Africa’s traffic growth headline masks deeper challenges around safety, costs, blocked funds, infrastructure charges and implementation discipline.
Africa’s aviation growth outlook is often presented as one of the strongest in the world, but Kamil Al-Awadhi, Regional Vice President for Africa and the Middle East at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), used his opening remarks at the recently held AFRAA 14th Aviation Stakeholders Convention to draw attention to the gap between percentage growth and actual market scale.
Al-Awadhi cautioned that Africa’s projected traffic growth needs to be read against the continent’s low share of global aviation activity. While global aviation growth was cited at around 4% for the year, Africa is projected at around 6%. This figure appears positive in headline terms, but he warned that it should not obscure the structural weakness behind the base.
“That 6% growth is of 2% of the world’s traffic, which is not much. Okay. It’s actually disappointing,” he said.
Africa has a significant population share and a clear aviation growth opportunity, but the continent still accounts for a disproportionately small share of global flights. Al-Awadhi said Africa represents about 19% of the world’s population, at approximately 1.58 billion to 1.6 billion people, while projected African traffic for the year stands at 2.9%.
For an industry accustomed to discussing opportunity, connectivity, collaboration and reform, the numbers point to a more difficult question. Africa is growing, but not yet at a scale that reflects its demographic weight, economic potential or long-term connectivity needs. Al-Awadhi’s message was that the sector has moved past the point where the same ambitions can be repeated without practical delivery.
“We have the same common message. There’s opportunities for growth here and there, and we need to work together, collaboration, connectivity, all the buzzwords that I’ve heard for the last 6 years in Africa. It’s time to put this into practice,” he said.
While aviation as a whole has shown resilience, he said Africa’s sector remains more exposed because of thin margins, infrastructure gaps, support constraints and the relative maturity of the industry. The issue is not only whether demand exists, but whether African aviation systems are strong enough to absorb shocks and convert demand into sustainable growth.
Safety was the first and strongest challenge he raised. Al-Awadhi congratulated South Africa for achieving 96% on ICAO effective implementation, describing it as an exceptional result for the continent and stronger than many European states. However, he contrasted that achievement with Africa’s broader safety performance, saying the continent still records more than seven accidents per million flights, around three times higher than elsewhere.
For Al-Awadhi, the accident rate itself is only part of the problem. The more serious concern is the failure to learn consistently from accidents once they occur. He criticised delays and gaps in accident investigation reporting, warning that without clear findings, the wider industry cannot address root causes or prevent recurrence.
“I keep saying that, you know, to have an accident is unfortunate, but to not learn from it is unforgivable,” he said.
Improving safety standards is not simply a matter of compliance paperwork or audit performance. It requires functioning oversight systems, skilled investigators, timely reporting and the ability to turn lessons from accidents into industry-wide correction.
Al-Awadhi said safety standards have been his biggest concern in Africa over the past six years. Through IATA’s Focus Africa work, he said two safety-related projects have been taken forward: a State Safety Programme linked to ICAO Annex 19 compliance, and a ramp safety assessment initiative. The State Safety Programme work is intended to support a more unified safety oversight approach across the 16 SADC countries, with implementation expected to begin in the last quarter of the year and is estimated take around 24 months to complete.
If state safety oversight can be developed to a single standard across 16 states, knowledge, capability and manpower can be shared more effectively. In a region where many civil aviation authorities face resource constraints, this kind of harmonised approach could strengthen oversight capacity and support higher safety performance across borders.
Regarding Ramp safety, Al-Awadhi said there is no ICAO standard covering this crucial area, while IATA produces its own standards. He said IATA is customising a specific ramp checklist for Africa, with the intention of addressing an operational risk area that affects airlines, airports, ground handlers and passengers alike.
Beyond safety, Al-Awadhi turned to one of African aviation’s most persistent commercial constraints: high taxes, charges, levies and fees. He said the cost burden makes it extremely difficult to open and operate a successful airline in Africa. The contradiction, as he framed it, is that governments often say they want to grow tourism and aviation’s contribution to GDP, while other parts of the same system raise the cost of landing, overflying, fuel, security and other aviation services.
The Tanzania security charge was used as a specific example. Al-Awadhi cited a $48 one-way charge, effectively adding around $100 to a return ticket for a security process he said costs less than $1 in many other parts of the world. His wider point was that destinations cannot credibly promote tourism and air connectivity while simultaneously imposing charges that make travel less competitive.
High costs filter directly into route viability. Airlines assessing African markets must weigh demand against fuel costs, airport charges, air navigation fees, security charges, taxes and currency risk. When the cost base is too high, routes that might otherwise stimulate tourism, trade and business connectivity become harder to sustain. In thinner markets, the difference between viable and unviable can be narrow.
Blocked funds formed another part of his warning, Al-Awadhi said he has raised the issue for six years and referred to recent work showing the impact on airlines. If an airline is owed $40 million and the local currency loses value over the year, the carrier can end up losing money on flights already operated. The operational service has been delivered, but the financial value of the revenue is eroded before the airline can repatriate it.
For carriers with global networks, blocked funds influence market decisions. Airlines may continue flying for strategic reasons, but persistent inability to access revenue makes capacity harder to justify. In African markets where route development is already constrained by costs and thin margins, blocked funds add another layer of risk.
Al-Awadhi also criticised the practice of increasing airport charges to fund new terminal developments before the infrastructure is built, with those charges often remaining in place after completion. The burden may begin with airlines, but it ultimately moves to passengers through higher fares.
For African aviation, this creates a policy tension. Infrastructure investment is necessary, but the method of funding it can weaken the very connectivity it is intended to support. Higher charges can reduce demand, discourage airlines from adding capacity and make destinations less competitive, particularly when passengers have alternative routings or tourism markets to choose from.
The industry has spent years discussing growth, collaboration, connectivity and reform. His position is that the language is no longer enough. Africa’s aviation opportunity will depend on whether governments, regulators, airports, airlines and industry bodies move from repeated diagnosis to practical execution.
Safety improvement, cost reduction, funds repatriation, smarter infrastructure funding and stronger connectivity frameworks are not separate issues. Together, they determine whether Africa’s projected growth can translate into a larger and more resilient aviation market. A 6% growth rate on a small base may look encouraging, but it does not yet reflect the continent’s population, demand potential or economic need for air connectivity.
