African airlines suffer higher costs, lower profit margins despite booming air traffic growth

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects global air passenger traffic to grow by 4.9% from five-billion passengers this year to 5.2-billion passengers in 2026. In Africa, the association expects passenger numbers to grow from 142-million this year to 149-million next year, marking 6% year-on-year growth, which is ahead of the industry average globally.