Africa's Aviation Market

Monthly Airline Data Updates for the African Market

Discover the Busiest Airports and Airlines in Africa This Month | MAY 2025

How much airline capacity is there in Africa? Find out with new data each month, detailing:

  • Which is the busiest airport?
  • What is the biggest airline in Africa?
  • Which African country has the most airline capacity?
  • Which regions are most visited?
  • And more.
Data is sourced from OAG's Schedules Analyser; a cutting-edge platform for airline schedule analysis.

 

Top Ten Airlines in Africa (Departing seats, one-way) | May 2025

 

Which is the biggest airline in Africa?

  • Ethiopian remains Africa's largest carrier, operating 1.9m seats in May 25, an increase of 9.2%, 158,700 more seats.
  • Safair grew at the fastest rate by 22.6%, introducing 173,700 additional seats.
  • Capacity continued to decline for Kenya Airways by 19% vs last year.

Top Ten Busiest Airports by Departing Seats in Africa | May 2025

 

Which is the Busiest Airport in Africa?

  • Cairo remains the largest airport in the continent with 1.56m seats in May 25.
  • Fastest growth within the Top 10 largest airports in Africa came from Addis Ababa, the second largest airport, increasing by 10.4% vs last year, 101,700 more seats.

Airline Capacity in Africa | May 2025

 

How much airline capacity is there in Africa This Month?

  • Total capacity across Africa this month has increased by 4.2% vs May 24 to 15.5m seats.
  • International capacity represents 68% of total capacity and is up by 6.6% vs May 24. In contrast Domestic capacity reduced by 0.6%.
  • Mainline carriers represent 84% of the market and capacity is increasing by 3.3% vs May 24. However LCC's are growing at a faster rate, with a 9.4% increase year on year to 2.4 million seats.

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African Countries' Airline Capacity | May 2025

 

Which African Country Has The Most Airline Capacity (Domestic + International)?

  • Egypt remains the largest country market in Africa with 2.6m seats in May 25, an increase of 5.9% vs last year.
  • With the Top 10 countries, capacity grew at the fastest rate of 9.6% in Ethiopia, with 113,500 more seats followed by South Africa where capacity grew by 9.4%, 184,800 more seats than last year. 
  • Capacity in Nigeria continued to decline, reducing by 17.3% vs last year.

Which African Country Has THE Most DOMESTIC Airline Capacity?

 

  • South Africa continues to be the largest domestic market in Africa, with 1.5m seats this month, an increase of 10.7% vs last year. Domestic capacity grew by 10.9% in Kenya vs May 24 to 416,600 seats.
  • Domestic capacity continued to decline in Nigeria by 22.2% and Egypt by 8.3% vs May 24.

Airline Capacity By African Region | May 2025

Where do flights from Africa go?

  • Capacity to Europe remains the largest International region, with 4.3m seats and grew by 300,400 seats (+7.5%).
  • Capacity continues to grow at the fastest rate between Africa and Asia Pacific, with an increase of 15.5% compared to last May, an additional 41,100 seats.

Which Region of Africa Has Most AIRLINE Capacity?

  • Capacity to/from North Africa is the largest market with 6.2m seats, growing by 377,600 seats vs last year, a 6.4% increase.
  • Percentage wise, capacity to/from Eastern Africa and Southern Africa grew at the fastest rate of 7.9%, 266,300 more seats and 213,400 more seats respectively.
  • Capacity to/from Central/Western Africa continued to reduce, declining by 7.8% this month vs May 24.

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