In 2024, Africa’s domestic flight market was almost nonexistent, accounting for just 0.4% of the global domestic flight market (38.2%) and a mere 1.8% of the global international flight market (61.8%).
This weak domestic market is a major reason why African airlines struggle financially. Ethiopian Airlines is cited as profitable, but that’s largely due to its lucrative European and Asian routes. On the continent, many of its flights operate with empty seats, while those heading to Europe are packed–highlighting the stark imbalance.
Two situations need to be addressed:
1. High flight costs – the average airfare within Africa is prohibitively expensive, often exceeding the GDP per capita of many of our countries.
How do you expect our folks from Burundi to travel with a GDP per capita of $277, while a round-trip to Entebbe costs $360. In other words, the trip costs a person’s entire livelihood
2. Restrictive visa policies – many African countries impose expensive and cumbersome visa requirements, severely limiting intra-African travel. For instance, a Ugandan pays $36 (sh132,000) for a South African visa but faces an additional $90 (sh330,000) in service fees–nearly triple the visa cost for a short-term stay.
Rwanda, which waived visas for all African citizens, saw a 24% increase in tourism arrivals over two years, proving the economic benefits of open borders. We need to pick a leaf.
Today in 1987, the @Airbus A320 first took to the skies. Today, more than 12,000 members of the A320 family (A318/9/A320/1 + neos) have been built and at any given moment there are between 3,000 and 5,000 members of the family in the air. pic.twitter.com/47WMUut2DP
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 22, 2025
Entebbe handled 2,243,104 passengers in 2024, with projections to hit 3 million by this year or mid-next year–an important milestone for attracting investment. However, Uganda Airlines remains heavily impacted by the lack of a domestic flight market, forcing it to rely almost entirely on regional and international routes, where competition is fierce.
To avoid prolonged struggles, Uganda Airlines must diversify its routes, build strategic partnerships, and push for visa-free access to key African markets. Expanding affordable regional connectivity–especially to underserved but high-demand routes–could help the airline establish a sustainable customer base beyond Entebbe.
But growth is limited if many Africans need visas to enter Uganda. Imagine the surge in Nigerian visitors alone if Uganda eliminated visa restrictions for them.
In general, we are largely responsible for that dry and empty African airspace as flights crowd in NA, LA, EU, Middle East and Asia
