A joint report by the International Air Transport Association and the Association of African Airlines has made it possible to follow the progress of scheduled traffic by African airlines. The document covers the period from 2009 to 2020.

From 52.2 million passengers recorded in 2009, they rose to a peak of 95.6 million in 2019, the year at the end of which the Covid-19 pandemic was to fatally affect the sector. From then on, the previously flourishing figures dropped drastically, falling below the 35 million passenger mark. In the WAEMU zone, overall traffic for all companies combined had even dropped by 95%, being limited only to special flights. The fight against the health crisis and the forced recovery of economies should revive the sector, but with the new variants, all of this remains very uncertain. Apart from a slight drop in 2011, we can see that the activity of carriers has continued to evolve most of the time.