Almost the entire African air fleet is grounded due to the epidemic of
coronavirus and airlines are at risk, says Association of African Airlines
(Afraa) Thursday.
“Today 95% of the African air fleet is grounded due to the pandemic, except flights
cargo ships," Abderrahmane Berthé, secretary general of Afraa, which has 45 companies, told AFP.
members on the continent.
A large part of African countries have closed their airports and borders because of the pandemic,
forcing companies to cancel both inter-African flights and flights to other continents.
“If African airlines do not receive support, they will find themselves in a situation
insolvency by the end of June", according to Mr. Berthé. He estimates that 2.5 to 3 billion dollars (between 2.3 and 2.8 billion
euros) are necessary, through financial aid or reductions in taxes and charges.
"African companies, long before the Covid-19 pandemic, were already in a difficult situation.
They had been losing money for ten years while other companies in the rest of the world were gaining
money. This crisis has accentuated the difficulties”, explains Mr. Berthé.
"For two weeks, it has been a great disaster for African companies whose planes
take off more. They have no more income, at the same time they suffer incompressible costs"
(aircraft rental, maintenance, insurance, parking fees), he adds.
The 45 member companies of Afraa represent 85% of inter-African traffic with 93 million
passengers per year.
Africa represents only 2% of global air transport, but traffic doubles every 15 to 20 years.