Africa presents top investment opportunity for the aviation industry

With 82% of the African civil aviation industry controlled or served by foreign carriers, Africa is presenting a big investment gap for African countries to invest and serve their own people with continental air transport solutions.

Players in the industry say that it is a very big percentage siphoning out a lot of money to foreigners yet it can be optimally harnessed by continental carriers.

Abebe Angesa the country representative of Ethiopian airline in Uganda says African carriers still have huge gap to harness in their own aviation industry.

He says Africans all together own 36 carriers however all these added only serve Africa to a mere 18 percent.

He says that is a gap that needs to be narrowed and the 82 percent be taken over from foreign carriers to have Africans serve their own people.

“We wish the African countries like South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and others emerge strong for us to take charge of our aviation sector,” he said.

 

To this effect, Ethiopian airline is targeting to launch out and expand further with more destinations in Africa because of the opportunities.

The senior marketing officer says the continent is presenting the aviation industry with numerous opportunities.

Currently Africa has a traffic volume of 68million air travelers on the continent. With persistent developments and wealth accumulation, the number is expected to tremendously shoot up.

Abebe says in the next years the numbers are expected to phenomenally increase to 400million travelers in the industry.

“The opportunity in the aviation in the civil aviation industry is huge however there is need for countries to prepare and get ready with necessary infrastructure.”

Ethiopia is one among countries owning a national carrier on the continent operating over 1946 flights annually to over 100 destinations. Ethiopian airline operates to more than fifty destinations within Africa.

Mary Legesse, a senior marketing officer at Ethiopia air expounds; “When we say destinations, we don’t mean countries, we could actually go to one country more than once. For instance, in Nigeria we go to Lagos, Abuja and two other places.”

However, these feel the numbers still need to be boosted on the continent. Other countries with carriers include Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Egypt.