Airline fleet composition in Africa

Airline fleet composition in Africa

Because the Seabury/ADG scheduling data used for market analysis in this report included the type of aircraft for each given flight, a breakdown of aircraft with their approximate age and size could be made (table 1.16). Figures 1.15 and 1.16 summarize the overall findings. The overall trend is quite visible, and has been confirmed by examining state registration changes in aircraft fleets using JP Fleets data.

Table 1.17 shows the types of aircraft used in international travel within Africa in each country’s major airport, measured as numbers of flights. The able is broken down by the country’s overall aviation market size, and compares one week in November 2001 to one week in November of 2007. The share of commuter propeller aircraft for international flights has grown from 33% to 40% for the countries with the least overall traffic, and may perhaps be even higher when considering eastern-built aircraft. The changes, once again, hint at an increase of shorter routes, especially since the only aircraft type whose share of the flights has been declining is the widebody.

Figure 1.15 Overall fleet age in use in Sub-Saharan Africa. The shift from older aircraft, as percentage of overall seat-kilometers flown, to recent aircraft is pronounced. This same shift, in differing magnitude, can be observed throughout different markets in Africa, including domestic markets. This same shift, though even stronger, has taken place in North Africa. Figure 1.11 shows that this shift is part of a trend toward smaller, city-jet sized aircraft in lieu of both wide-bodies and commuter propeller aircraft.

Figure 1.16 Size of aircraft in Sub-Saharan passenger fleets. Capacity has shifted toward Boeing 737 or Airbus 320-sized aircraft, away from both wide-body and commuter propeller aircraft.