Boeing announces that according to its forecasts, the air passenger traffic in Africa should more than quadruple over the next twenty years.
The American aircraft manufacturer estimates that 1025 new planes, mainly single-aisle aircraft for intra-African traffic, will be necessary to support this growth over the next two decades. Its European competitor Airbus is even more optimistic, estimating demand from the African air market at 1,180 new planes by 2042, including 295 wide-bodies and 885 single-aisle aircraft.
Also according to Boeing, overall growth in African air traffic is expected to reach 7.4%, the third highest among the world’s regions and surpassing the global average growth of 6.1%. “African carriers are well placed to support the growth of intra-regional traffic and capture market share developing passenger services but also trade within the continent.“, says Randy Heisey, Boeing’s general manager of commercial marketing for the Middle East and Africa.
“We expect the average aircraft size and number of seats per aircraft to increase for the African fleet as single-aisle aircraft, such as the Boeing 737 MAX, will be in highest demand on the continent.“, he adds.
