Everywhere you look in Africa’s regional blocs, a new airport is coming up. There is a race, it would seem, to build airports. Yet experts point out that many of these big-ticket projects are driven not entirely by need but also by policy and prestige.

 

In East Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia are among a dozen African countries that have committed about $25 billion to new airports and major upgrades in a bid to become regional aviation hubs and boost air connectivity.

The projects, ranging from new international airports, such as those planned in Ethiopia and Rwanda, to the expansion of regional airports in Kenya, are intended to ease capacity constraints, attract international airlines, support tourism and cargo, and position cities as transit gateways for a continent where air travel remains among the least developed globally.

The Addis Ababa Bole International Airport currently serves about 25 million passengers a year, far above the 19 million it was designed to handle, severely straining its role as the hub for the country’s flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines.

The carrier is among the financiers of the Bishoftu project, with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) expected to contribute.

Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport shares Addis Ababa’s capacity constraints. It exceeded its designed capacity of 7.5 million passengers a year in 2023 and is currently handling almost 9 million passengers annually.

Its upgrade to handle 25 million passengers a year will cost up to $1.2 billion, making it the most expensive airport upgrade project on the continent after Morocco’s planned $1.6 billion expansion of Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca.

Rwanda’s Bugesera International Airport, financed largely by Qatar Airways, is intended to address a similar capacity challenge at Kigali International Airport, which is limited to about two million passengers a year.

Bugesera, which will serve both as an African hub for Qatar Airways and as the main hub for RwandAir, will have capacity for up to 14 million passengers annually, significantly boosting the country’s aviation industry.

A number of other airport projects are addressing similar capacity constraints, including the recently completed Dr António Agostinho Neto International Airport in Luanda, Angola, and the expansion of Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca.

Prestige projectsOf the 12 major airport projects currently planned, under way or recently completed, less than half address genuine demand and are expected to generate meaningful economic returns. The rest may simply add to the growing list of prestige airports competing for the same international transit traffic, which is showing limited growth.“There are areas like Bishoftu, Bugesera and JKIA, where major international gateways need to be upgraded, but those are few,” said Sean Mendis, an aviation commentator and former COO of Accra-based Africa World Airlines.“Some of these airports are driven more by policy than demand. In many cases they’re politically driven and seen as a symbol of national prestige, and the delusion of ‘if XYZ has done it, why can’t we?’”Together, the new airports, along with a host of smaller domestic and regional ones, including Uganda’s Arua Airport and Tanzania’s Arusha Airport, will increase the continent’s passenger capacity by almost 150 million a year.

Yet they could bring little improvement to Africa’s struggling air transport industry, constrained by the slow implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (Saatm) and the affordability crunch facing many of the continent’s citizens.“Only 10 percent of African citizens can afford air transport, indicating significant potential for growth,” said African Airlines Association (Afraa) Secretary-General Abderahmane Berthe during the Aviation Stakeholders Convention in Kigali in May.“Alongside the challenges of regulatory policies, airlines must improve cooperation through airline agreements, code-sharing and partnerships, while also lowering their operating costs to make air travel more affordable for a greater number of Africans.”Cost challengeBut many of the operating costs incurred by African carriers are inflated by government policies, squeezing margins and making air travel less affordable.

According to the International Air Transport Association (Iata), African airlines pay 17 percent more than their global peers for fuel, 12 to 15 percent more in taxes, 10 percent more in air navigation charges, and between six percent and 10 percent more for insurance, maintenance and capital costs.

In addition, African governments have blocked at least $954 million in airline funds, accounting for 79 percent of all blocked airline funds globally and placing further pressure on the continent’s carriers’ cash flows.“Demand for air travel in Africa is rising faster than in many other parts of the world, but profitability is not keeping pace. With margins of just 1.3 percent, African airlines are capturing only a fraction of aviation’s economic value,” said Kamil Al-Awadhi, Iata’s Regional Vice-President for Africa and the Middle East.“Addressing the barriers that constrain growth is essential to ensure the region’s traffic expansion also delivers financial strength.”Regional focusInstead of investing billions of dollars in mega aviation hubs that may never live up to expectations, experts say governments should prioritise domestic and regional aviation infrastructure, where demand is already growing.

Domestic air travel is currently Africa’s fastest-growing segment. In 2024, 28.4 percent of air passengers on the continent travelled on domestic routes, surpassing, for the first time, intra-African traffic, which fell to 26.7 percent from 32 percent in 2023.“The growth in African aviation is going to come from the bottom end, that is domestic and low-cost regional travel where demand already exists and just needs to be unlocked,” Mr Mendis said.“Consequently, it is the smaller regional airport projects that actually help drive growth by attracting customers away from ground transport, rather than global mega hubs, which are simply competing for a slice of the same pie.”Across the continent, a series of domestic airport projects is also in the pipeline, with many attracting funding from key financiers such as the African Development Bank.

Last month, Uganda secured financing from the AfDB for the construction of Arua Airport, signalling confidence in what will become one of the country’s largest domestic airports, alongside Hoima and Nyakisharara in Mbarara.

Policy over prestigeYet many of the continent’s mega airport projects may do little to address the structural challenges facing African aviation, as airlines continue to struggle with high operating costs, slow demand growth and heavily restricted skies, experts argue.

For Africa’s aviation sector to take off, investment in domestic and regional airports may prove more important than the race to build new mega hubs.

Political will to reduce taxes and fast-track the implementation of Saatm will also be crucial, they say.

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