Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) is among the intra-Africa air routes where activities have already hit pre-Covid levels ahead of the festive season in the fourth quarter of the year.

Coming shortly after the country hosted the Africa Climate Change Summit at Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), this signals a rebounding aviation industry even as African countries push for open skies through the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), to boost revenue and sustainability.

The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) says traffic carried by African airlines reached 98.4 per cent of the 2019 level in August 2023.

Domestic market share was estimated at 34 per cent, intra-Africa at 29 per cent, and intercontinental at 37 per cent.

“The total number of intercontinental routes operated by African airlines exceeded pre-Covid levels since October 2022. In some major airports (Johannesburg, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Lusaka, Cairo, Casablanca, Abidjan, and Lomé), intra-Africa connectivity has reached or exceeded pre-Covid level since December 2022,” AFRAA noted.

AFRAA has not issued air traffic per country, but Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data shows that visitor arrivals through JKIA reached 124,483 in June 2023 alone, a month-on-month increase compared to 96,168 in October 2022. JKIA is one of the key regional airports where passengers connect flights to either United States, Britain, or Middle East.

It is one year since the completion of the face-lifting of JKIA’s terminals 1B and C to ease traffic flow and enhance efficiency, giving the national carrier, Kenya Airways (KQ), an opportunity to cash in from the rebounding aviation and tourism sectors.

During the six months to June, KQ’s passenger revenues rose by Sh29.9 billion as passenger numbers grew from 1.6 million in the first half of 2022 to 2.3 million.

“For the first time in six years, we have made an operating profit, which is clearly a testament of the hard work we put in to turn around this airline. Operating results show the company is viable,” KQ CEO Allan Kilavuka said last month.

Travels through Mombasa International Airport have, however, been nosediving on a monthly basis during the same period. Last month, the government granted Ethiopian Airlines and Fly Dubai greenlight to fly directly to Mombasa, with others, such as Turkish Airlines, also being assessed to spur tourism in the coastal region.

AFRAA says in the first three months of the year, African airlines missed the levels attained in a similar period in 2019 by $300 million (Sh43.5 billion).