The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported that African airlines recorded 19.2% year-on-year surge in international passenger demand in March this year.
The association, in its just released March 2026 Global Passenger Demand report, which tracked international and domestic air traffic trends across major world regions, noted that the strong performance reflected Africa’s growing importance in the global aviation recovery, even as geopolitical tensions and airspace disruptions negatively impacted the international markets.
According to the global body, while capacity expanded modestly by 4.2%, African airlines’ load factor improved to 77.7%, indicating stronger seat utilization and improving airline economics.
The IATA clarified: “African airlines saw a 19.2% year-on-year increase in demand. Capacity was up 4.2% year-on-year. The load factor was 77.7% (+9.8 ppt compared to March 2025)”
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Available data on the global passenger demand showed that the 19.2% growth recorded by carriers in the African continent in international revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) was among the highest globally just as the airlines’ load factor improvement of 9.8 percentage points represented one of the largest regional gains recorded in March this year
The improved performance of the African airlines came at a time when global international passenger traffic declined for the first since March 2021 by 0.6% year-on-year in March this year.
The IATA attributed the decline largely to a 60.8% drop in Middle Eastern traffic due to the lingering US-Israel-Iran war and regional airspace closures in the month under review.
