African airlines see slowdown in March 2024

May 2, 2024 in Business, Travel & Tourism by Editor

Passenger demand showed signs of plateauing out for African airlines, with growth during March 2024 slowing down to 8.1pc relative to the comparable period for 2023.

According to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) analysis of the passenger air travel market for the month, the month also saw the widest spread between growth and capacity, leading to the most severe erosion of the cabin factor since the year started.

Capacity for March was up 11pc year-on-year, resulting in a sharp plunge in load factor to 70.3pc for the month. This was -1.9pc relative to March 2023 and 3.7pc down on February 2023.

This was in contrast to global performance where the airline industry experienced 13.8pc y-o-y growth in demand during March 2024.  Demand was ahead of capacity, which increased by only 12.3pc, trailing demand by 1.5 percentage points. The load factor was a healthy 82pc during the month.

Overall, however, Africa enjoyed a positive first quarter. Passenger volumes in February increased 20.7pc year-on year against a 22.1pc increase in capacity. The passenger load factors fell by -0.8 percentage points to 74.0pc during the month.

February had registered an improvement over January during which demand had grown by 18.5pc relative to January 2023. Capacity had also been better matched to the market, expanding only 19.2pc during the month. The load factor had also marginally fallen by 0.4pc to 73.3pc. Africa’s share of global air travel remained at 2.1pc throughout the quarter, a 0.2 percent improvement over 1Q 2023.