Africa: air traffic climbs, but planes are less full

Editorial responsibility

Editorial responsibility: Paul Arnaud DEGUENON, journalist and business development expert.

Read our editorial charter · Report a correction

Traffic on African airlines rose 5% in September 2026, while global demand fell 0.5%. The growth, particularly strong on international routes, has nonetheless been accompanied by a drop in load factors.

African carriers recorded an 8% rise in their international traffic in September year on year, according to data published on 30 October by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). They thus posted one of the strongest regional performances, behind Latin American airlines, whose growth reached 8.2%. Worldwide, international traffic growth was limited to 0.4%.

Including domestic routes, traffic growth for African airlines stood at 5%, the strongest increase among the regions studied. These changes are measured in paid passenger-kilometres, an indicator that takes into account both the number of passengers carried and the distances flown.

Supply growing faster than demand

African airlines increased their capacity by 7.7% across their networks, at a faster pace than traffic. Their load factor thus fell by 1.9 points to 73.5%, compared with a global average of 83.2%.

On international routes alone, capacity rose by 8.8%, while the load factor fell by 0.6 points to 74.8%. Despite strong demand, African carriers retain the lowest load factor of the six regions tracked by IATA.

Their weight in the global market also remains limited. They accounted for 2.2% of traffic in 2025, compared with 34.4% for Asia-Pacific carriers and 26.7% for European ones.

Middle East and domestic markets drag demand lower

The global decline stems in particular from difficulties at Middle Eastern carriers, whose total traffic fell by 8%. Excluding this region, global demand would have risen by 0.3% in September.

Domestic markets also weighed on activity, with a 2.2% contraction. Demand fell by 2.7% in the United States and by 8.3% in India, where IATA notes the sharpest decline of the year. Gains recorded in China, Australia and Brazil were not enough to offset this downturn.

IATA chief economist Marie Owens Thomsen nonetheless notes an improvement compared with August, with a return to growth in several international markets. The organisation expects global capacity to be above 2025 levels in October and November, but growth will be weak and very uneven across regions, amid geopolitical uncertainty and volatile fuel prices.