By Oluwayinka Odufote
Your commercial awareness dose
We are aware that COVID-19 affected many key sectors in the African economy. And these sectors struggled to resurface from the impact of the virus. No doubt, airports are important to the financial improvement of countries and continents. They transport passengers and cargo which benefits the country. However, the pandemic hit air travel hard as many airlines had to cut capacity and shut down. Given the importance of air travel on the economy, many countries experienced a sharp fall in revenue.
The impact of the pandemic on aviation in Africa was lower compared to other continents. But Africa’s aviation industry still suffered a great loss—business flights were cancelled and many small and large companies were affected. According to Africa program director for London- based research group, Alex Vine, “Many African airlines were already in trouble before the pandemic hit the continent. And COVID-19 only made things worse for them.”
Now, many people perceived that the aviation industry in Africa will find it difficult to emerge after it was grounded to a stop. But this industry rebounded faster compared to other sectors. After the six months of lockdown in Africa, Nigeria reopened her international flight on September 5th, 2020. Ghana also resumed their international flight on September 1st and South Africa received a COVID-19 reprieve as the airspace resumed slowly.
Although air travel rebounded after the pandemic, the virus left a long-lasting effect on the economy. Africa experienced tremendous fallout in billions of dollars and jobs. This affected the tourism industry too. Significant number of workers in the tourism and aviation industry were laid off. Therefore, increasing the number of unemployed people in Africa was recorded. Several businesses experienced a relapse. For instance, in Zimbabwe, a particular Air Zimbabwe airline company suffered $300 million in debt. Again in April, the International Air Transport Association warned that Airlines in Africa could lose about $6 billion in revenue along with 3 million aviation and related jobs.
The government of African countries declared a state of emergency immediately after the pandemic hit Africa and Africa remained static through this period since there were no major developments in the continent. While many airlines in Africa were grounded, Ethiopia Airlines, the biggest and most profitable airline in Africa continued its operation. This airline wasn’t spared by the pandemic because it recorded revenue losses of $550 million but it still operated in two zones- cargo and repatriation flights.
Ethiopian Airlines was still in operation because it was at the forefront of flying COVID-19 materials around the world. Aside from this, it was used in transporting foreign citizens out of Africa. The Ethiopian government also partnered with PM Abiy Ahmed to assist in distributing the COVID-19 supplies donated to Africa by Jack Ma, a Chinese businessman. And this airline was deployed in the sharing of these supplies around Africa. Nigeria also had a repatriation flight which was scheduled on the 15 th of august. This flight was specifically for businessmen and foreigners who were stranded in Nigeria.
Furthermore, the impact of the virus affected the continental free-trade zone in Africa. It is no news that Africa has a history of poor transport—it’s decades old. In 1961, West and Central Africa brought 11 independent African countries to form Air Afrique. The goal of this body was to serve as a standing symbol of African unity and sovereignty. However, this goal hasn’t been accomplished. African travellers have been facing and even faced more problems due to COVID-19. Some airlines dogged safety concerns while others were not properly funded to operate. Airline companies like—ASKY, Air Senegal, Royal Air Maroc, Air Kenyan and Air Rwanda had to be transformed and reborn to meet the COVID-19 airline requirement.
Presently, the cases of COVID-19 have slowly dropped to the advantage of air travel in Africa. And the air travel industry in Africa is gradually resuming its normal operations.
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