Keypoints:
- African airline unit costs nearly double global average
- Jet fuel costs 17 percent more in Africa
- Taxes and weak connectivity keep fares elevated
FLYING between African cities remains unnecessarily expensive for millions of travellers, even as demand for air travel grows and governments promise deeper continental integration. Behind the high ticket prices lies a costly mix of fuel, taxes, fragmented markets and too few direct routes.
New industry figures have sharpened the scale of the problem. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says African carriers face the world’s highest unit costs, almost twice the industry average, while jet fuel remains 17 percent more expensive and government taxes and charges continue to exceed global norms.
Africa’s costly aviation problem
A recent CGTN Africa report drew renewed attention to the price of flying within the continent, but one of the figures used in the discussion requires an important distinction.
The most clearly documented IATA figure is not that the average intra-African airline ticket costs 17 percent more than the global average. Rather, jet fuel in Africa costs about 17 percent more than the global average.
That matters because fuel is only one element in a much wider cost problem.
IATA says African airlines have the highest unit operating costs of any region, with average unit costs almost twice the global industry level. Fuel alone can account for roughly 40 percent of an African airline’s operating costs, compared with about a quarter globally.
Taxes, fees and charges are also substantially higher than international averages. Air-navigation services, maintenance, insurance and financing add further pressure.
IATA Regional Vice-President for Africa and the Middle East Kamil Alawadhi has repeatedly warned that unnecessary taxes, charges and regulatory barriers increase the cost of travel and weaken connectivity across the continent.
Passengers eventually feel much of that pressure through higher fares, while airlines operating on thin margins have limited room to absorb sudden increases in fuel, airport charges or financing costs.
The paradox is that demand for African air travel continues to grow.
IATA figures for July 2026 showed international passenger demand among African airlines rising 6.4 percent from a year earlier. Capacity grew even faster, by 9.0 percent, while the passenger load factor fell 1.8 percentage points to 74.1 percent.
Africa Briefing has previously reported that African airline passenger demand has continued to expand despite weaker growth in parts of the global market, highlighting the contrast between rising travel demand and the difficult economics of supplying it.
Too many journeys, too few direct flights
Price is only part of the problem.
Africa still lacks direct air links between numerous commercially viable city pairs, forcing travellers onto longer routes that increase both journey times and costs.
IATA says only 19 percent of intra-African routes have direct flights.
That shortage of non-stop connections means passengers travelling between African capitals can sometimes spend much of a day in transit for journeys that would take only a few hours if direct services existed.
Recent analysis highlighted by Africa Briefing identified 55 potentially viable intra-African city pairs without non-stop services, including routes where significant underlying passenger demand already exists.
Fragmented aviation markets help explain the gap.
Many governments continue to protect domestic aviation markets through restrictive bilateral arrangements, while implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) remains uneven.
SAATM was designed to liberalise African skies, allow airlines greater access to routes across the continent and create a more competitive aviation market.
But progress has been slow.
Africa Briefing reported in June that African ministers adopted a new aviation roadmap in Lomé aimed at reducing travel costs, accelerating market liberalisation and improving passenger mobility.
Those commitments have yet to produce a genuinely open continental aviation market.
Governments add to the bill
Taxation remains one of the most contentious issues.
Governments often view aviation charges as a relatively easy source of revenue, while airlines argue that excessive taxation suppresses demand and undermines the wider economic benefits created by tourism, business travel and trade.
IATA estimates that taxes and charges in Africa remain well above global averages.
The cost is ultimately reflected in ticket prices.
West Africa has begun trying to address the issue.
ECOWAS leaders approved regional aviation tax reforms at their December 2024 summit, with the measures due to take effect from January 1, 2026. They include the removal of certain air-ticket taxes and reductions in passenger and security charges.
By June 2026, however, the bloc was still accelerating implementation through a new regional economic oversight mechanism intended to support cheaper, more competitive and better integrated air transport across West Africa.
The reforms are designed to lower the cost of regional air travel and strengthen connectivity, but their impact will depend heavily on implementation by individual member states.
Airlines struggle to access their money
Another less visible problem is the ability of airlines to repatriate revenues earned in African markets.
As of the end of March 2026, IATA said airlines had about $774m in blocked funds in Africa, representing a large share of the global total.
Blocked funds occur when foreign airlines sell tickets in local currency but are unable to convert and transfer the proceeds because of foreign-exchange shortages or government restrictions.
The consequences can be severe.
When carriers cannot reliably move revenue out of a market, financial risks rise. Airlines may reduce frequencies, restrict capacity or reconsider routes altogether.
That weakens competition and can contribute to higher fares.
Visa barriers remain stubborn
The cost of flying is also shaped by what happens before a passenger reaches the airport.
Despite years of commitments to freer movement, travel between African countries remains heavily restricted by visa requirements.
The 2025 Africa Visa Openness Index, produced by the African Development Bank and African Union Commission, found that 51.1 percent of intra-African travel scenarios still required travellers to obtain a visa before departure.
That represented a deterioration from 47.1 percent in 2024.
The figures underline a persistent contradiction: African governments are promoting continental trade and economic integration while movement between many countries remains administratively difficult and expensive.
There has been progress in some areas, particularly through electronic visas and visa-free arrangements, but the overall picture remains uneven.
Open skies could change the equation
Reducing the cost of flying within Africa therefore requires more than cheaper fuel.
Governments would need to reduce excessive taxes and charges, expand competition, liberalise route access, improve airport efficiency, ease visa restrictions and allow airlines to repatriate revenues without prolonged delays.
The case for reform extends well beyond aviation.
The African Continental Free Trade Area is intended to create a more integrated continental economy, but goods, executives, workers, tourists and investors cannot move efficiently across a continent whose air links remain expensive and fragmented.
Africa Briefing has also examined Africa’s renewed push to make the Single African Air Transport Market work, a reform that could determine whether the continent finally turns rising travel demand into a more competitive aviation network.
Africa’s aviation problem is therefore not simply that passengers pay too much for tickets.
It is that the continent pays a wider economic price whenever costly, indirect or unavailable flights make African cities harder to connect with one another.
Demand for travel is growing. Airlines are adding capacity. Governments repeatedly say they want deeper African integration.
The unresolved question is whether aviation policy will finally catch up.
Related stories
African ministers push cheaper flights across Africa
Africa lacks direct flights on 55 routes
