For the most up-to-date information regarding the Ebola crisis please see our commentary below.

2013 (OAG Traffic Analyser data*)

According to OAG, in 2013, 264,300 passengers (approximately 725 per day) travelled by air from the three infected countries to either Europe or North America. The numbers by airport were:-

Freetown, Sierra Leone – 110,269 passengers

Monrovia, Liberia – 53,336 passengers

Conakry, Guinea – 100,685 passengers

From Freetown, the main markets were London (with services to both London Heathrow & London Gatwick) with some 78,200 passengers reported for the year, followed by Washington Dulles with 13,700 passengers (the majority of which will have been travelling with BA and connecting via London Heathrow).

From Monrovia, the top market was London Heathrow (11,000 passengers) and then New York with 10,500 passengers.

From Conakry, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport was the key market with 52,235 passengers followed by Brussels with 11,233 passengers.

Some 16,400 passengers (45 a day) travelled via London to reach their final destination with nearly all of those travelling via Heathrow. The key onward destinations for those passengers were New York and Washington where collectively some 2,000 passengers travelled; equal to about five a day.

Paris was a more popular transfer point than London (Heathrow and Gatwick) with around 23,800 passengers routing to their final destination via that airport; the main driver of that being the 16,800 that travelled to and from Conakry.

Some 4,000 of those transit passengers ultimately were destined for London Heathrow which reflects in part there being no direct services from Conakry to the UK but also cheaper pricing via Paris.

There is an interesting ‘directional’ flow via Dakar from all three markets. Some 26,000 passengers from the three airports connect via Dakar to a range of destinations in Europe and North America. Much of this traffic will have been carried on the South African Airways services from Dakar to Washington and New York (this service only operates in one direction).

*All data has been pulled using OAG Traffic Analyser, the most powerful, flexible, web-based integrated traffic analysis tool available, allowing you to create dynamic visualisations of air passenger traffic flows at the touch of a button (10/10/14).

2014 (OAG Schedules Analyser data *)

OAG’s latest analysis on 10 October shows that year-on-year capacity and frequency are down by around 64% from the three affected airports.

Gambia Bird, along with British Airways, stopped services to and from Sierra Leone in August but the German-owned airline announced it was resuming flights because of the damage being caused by the lack of access (this has now been revoked).

OAG’s executive vice president, John Grant, says: “In May 2014 there were some 427 flights from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Liberia to any destination in the world. In October that had fallen to some 152 flights scheduled providing some 22,782 seats: a reduction in flights of some 64% in both flights and seats.

“Carriers such as BA have dropped services completely whilst other major carriers such as Air France, Kenya Airways and Emirates have reduced their operations and adjusted the timings of their services.

“It is more difficult to get a clear picture amongst the smaller regional carriers in West Africa as frequencies and operations change more frequently than with the larger international carriers.”

*All data has been pulled using OAG Schedules Analyser which allows users to analyse and identify trends, spot commercial opportunities and monitor competitor activity (10/10/14).

**Please credit all data and infographic use to: OAG,  the leading provider of global aviation intelligence and information. This information has been published in good faith and we would urge all users to rightfully acknowledge its source.

Please credit any analysis to: John Grant, executive vice president, OAG.

-ENDS-

For further press information:                               

Trudi Beggs / Sam Murray

80:20 Communications

T: +44 (0)20 7664 6310

E: tbeggs@8020comms.com / smurray@8020comms.com       

About OAG

OAG regularly provides schedule and flight status data and bespoke market analysis for a wide range of customers both within and outside of the aviation and travel markets. These include the transport, medical, security, science, leisure, defence, environment and finance sectors amongst many others as well as governments and their agencies, universities, industry institutions and health and research organisations. If your organisation would like to find out more about our products and services click here for further information or visit www.oag.com

28 March 2024 Blog

Why Is Average Flight Capacity Increasing at Its Fastest Rate Ever?

Things change slowly in the aviation industry and it’s very rare to see a “step change’ in the sector. However, as we finally leave the pandemic ...

15 March 2024 Webinar

Summer Incoming: Is The Aviation Industry Ready? | Aviation Webinars

The aviation industry's Summer Season gets started in a couple of weeks as airlines move to their Summer schedules. This month John and Deirdre were ...

27 September 2023 Podcast

On Air: in conversation with Dave Ingram from gategroup | Aviation Podcast

Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports ...