African airlines recorded growth in both demand and capacity in February, but passenger load factor declined compared with February 2025.
According to IATA’s Air Passenger Market Analysis for February 2026, African airlines saw a 4,8% year-on-year (y-o-y) increase in demand on international routes, measured in revenue passenger kilometres.
While this was lower than the global airline average of a 6,1% y-o-y, Africa’s total demand, on international, regional and domestic routes was the fastest growing of all regions, at 11,9% y-o-y.
African airlines’ international capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, exceeded the global average growth of 5,6% y-o-y, at 6,6%.
However, IATA predicts that global seat capacity growth will slow further to 2,7% y-o-y in April, driven by the ongoing reduction in Middle East capacity.
That said, African airlines’ load factor growth on international routes, 74,5% y-o-y, was below the global average growth of 81,4% and marked a 1,3 percentage point decrease compared with last year.
