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To fly between Kinshasha and Lagos, for instance, (only 1,110 miles / 1,760 km) requires 12 hours or more, and costs USD $1,200.
Ethiopia has the only airline carrier on the continent that's earning a profit. Africa's airlines have some of the oldest planes, and the world's worst safety record.
Flying between African countries, often involves a long detour to transfer either in Europe or the Middle East, and then back to Africa.
Airports, aircraft maintenance facilities, and pilot training centers, are very inadequate in Africa. Taxes and surcharges on fares are very high. All this is bad for economic growth.
A 1999 cooperative agreement between 44 African nations was supposed to streamline and remove international barriers for air travel across Africa, but it is seldom implemented. Great inefficiencies remain.
Last edited by slowlane3; 06-14-2018 at 07:53 AM..
To fly between Kinshasha and Lagos, for instance, (only 1,110 miles / 1,760 km) requires 12 hours or more, and costs USD $1,200.
Ethiopia has the only airline carrier on the continent that's earning a profit. Africa's airlines have some of the oldest planes, and the world's worst safety record.
Flying between African countries, often involves a long detour to transfer either in Europe or the Middle East, and then back to Africa.
Airports, aircraft maintenance facilities, and pilot training centers, are very inadequate in Africa. Taxes and surcharges on fares are very high. All this is bad for economic growth.
A 1999 cooperative agreement between 44 African nations was supposed to streamline and remove international barriers for air travel across Africa, but it is seldom implemented. Great inefficiencies remain.
Limited trade between African countries within Africa. Airline routes especially long haul ones are often based on business class demand. The leisure market isn't there either. The annual GDP per capita of many if not most African countries is below the $1200 ticket price you cited.
South Africa Arways should be a leader but it's on life support. Ethiopia Airways is doing well but many of their planes are half full. It'll be interesting to see I they can keep up growth. Ghana has upgraded some airport infrastructure and serves a s a hub in West Africa but more needs to be done.
Not enough demand IMO, when theirs more or even one to three moderately developed countries (As developed as Turkey, Kazakhstan of Iran is today) demand will increase and thus things may/will change.
I agree with the idea of "not enough demand" (generally) and the limited trade between countries. Some connections are good - Egyptair and Ethiopian get me around much of the continent, but sometimes, I've got to connect through Istanbul (e.g., Turkish Air to Mogadishu) or Brussels (Brussels Airlines also offers good connections to, but not around the continent, unless you "luck out" on one of their triangle routes (Brussels, Freetown, Monrovia, Brussels). Also, there have been a number of pan-African airlines that didn't survive (RIP Air Afrique, Afrinat International Airlines, ), and country flag carriers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ines_of_Africa).
Still, I'll take getting around the continent in 2018 over the early 1980s, when I first started living/working there any day.
(South African Airlines is worth mentioning, but I am choosing to note it only as a footnote. Flights through Johannesburg are no better than through Addis or Cairo or even Paris for much of the continent.)
I agree with the idea of "not enough demand" (generally) and the limited trade between countries. Some connections are good - Egyptair and Ethiopian get me around much of the continent, but sometimes, I've got to connect through Istanbul (e.g., Turkish Air to Mogadishu) or Brussels (Brussels Airlines also offers good connections to, but not around the continent, unless you "luck out" on one of their triangle routes (Brussels, Freetown, Monrovia, Brussels). Also, there have been a number of pan-African airlines that didn't survive (RIP Air Afrique, Afrinat International Airlines, ), and country flag carriers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ines_of_Africa).
Still, I'll take getting around the continent in 2018 over the early 1980s, when I first started living/working there any day.
(South African Airlines is worth mentioning, but I am choosing to note it only as a footnote. Flights through Johannesburg are no better than through Addis or Cairo or even Paris for much of the continent.)
My mom had nice things to say flying from DC to Accra on SA Airways but in general the airline is struggling.
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