The International Air Transport Association has reported that African airlines recorded a 6.7 per cent year-on-year increase in demand in February 2025 as compared to the same period in 2024.
IATA also said that global total demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, grew by 2.6 per cent compared to February 2024, while total capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, was up by two per cent year-on-year.
These were contained in the global data released by IATA on Monday.
According to IATA in its regional market analysis, African airlines experienced a 6.7 per cent year-on-year growth in demand with increased capacity at four per cent year-on-year.
Similarly,the load factor for Africa rose to 75.3 per cent compared to February 2024.For the global performance, total demand, measured in RPK, was up 2.6 per cent compared to February 2024.
Besides, total capacity, measured in ASK, was up two per cent year-on-year, while the February load factor was 81.1 per cent compared to the February 2024 period.
IATA also said that international demand rose 5.6 per cent compared to February 2024, capacity was up 4.5 per cent year-on-year, and the load factor was 80.2 per cent within the same period under review.
Domestic demand fell 1.9 per cent compared to February 2024, and capacity was down 1.7 per cent year-on-year, while the load factor was 82.6 per cent compared to February 2024.
Commenting on the statistics, Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director-General, said that while traffic growth slowed in February, much of this could be explained by factors including the leap year and the lunar new year falling in January compared to February last year.
Walsh emphasised that February traffic hit an all-time high, and the number of scheduled flights was set to continue increasing in March and April.
He added: “The recent shutdown of Heathrow reminded us once again that the current passenger rights regime in place in Europe and the UK is not fit for purpose.
“The annual costs of compensation, care and assistance run into the billions. Thankfully, the Polish presidency of the EU has recognised that this is a drag on European competitiveness and is progressing with much-needed and long-anticipated reforms to EU261.
“While many of the proposed reforms are sensible, the package stops short of a real solution.
“Even with the reforms, EU261 will still target the airlines with penalties even if the root cause of delays is an infrastructure incident out of their control—like we saw at Heathrow.
“Over two decades of EU261 have not seen a reduction in delays because infrastructure providers have no incentive to improve their game.
“Sadly, for European travelers, we are likely to see this play out again in this summer’s peak travel season. Genuine reform of EU261 must ensure that all parties responsible for delays have a stake in the consequences,” said Walsh.
