Africa’s biggest and most profitable airline, Ethiopian Airlines serves more African countries, connecting 38 nations more than any other carrier from its hub in Addis Ababa.
According to simpleflying.com, Secretary General of the African Airlines Association, Abderahmane Berthe, while speaking at the CONNECT Route Development Forum in Morocco said “No other continent has as many countries as Africa,”. By geographic area, Africa is bigger than the USA, Europe, and China combined.
Africa has 54 countries, raising an obvious question. Given the size and the myriad of enormous problems affecting its aviation development, including the less discussed issue of visas, how many African countries have flights to other nations across the continent?
Intra-African flights
Flights can be divided into domestic, intra-Africa (i.e., international within the continent), and intercontinental. For this article, I’m interested in the second category.
For this, I’ve examined OAG schedules for quarter two (April-June) 2023. It is based on both non-stop and stopping scheduled passenger flights, so crucial across the land, and I’ve assumed a minimum of 10 flights to qualify.
Five countries linked to 25+ others
Analysis of nearly 600 country pairs reveals that the average African nation is connected to nine other countries across the vast continent. At the most extreme, five countries are linked to at least 25 others, as summarized below:
Hardly surprisingly, most relate to a heavily dominant hub-and-spoke airline – Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, Royal Air Maroc, and Togo’s ASKY – which, by their nature, drive connectivity. An interesting exception is South Africa, which is less about a hub operator: heavily impacted South African Airways serves only eight nations, while it is 12 for Airlink (13 if you include Saint Helena). Instead, South Africa attracts service from a vast array of African carriers, including Air Algerie.
Ethiopian Airlines, Royal Air Maroc
Ethiopia has flights to 38 other African countries, each served by Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s biggest carrier. OAG indicates that the Star Alliance member has more flights to Somalia than anywhere else, while Benin has the least. Yet Ethiopian Airlines doesn’t serve 30% of Africa’s nations, mainly in the north and smaller places in sub-Saharan Africa.
Royal Air Maroc mainly links Europe and North America to West and Central Africa, together with parts of North Africa to other areas in the continent. It serves 26 African countries from its Casablanca hub, mainly using 737-800s but also the 737 MAX 8, 787-8, and 787-9. Tunisia has the most flights.
Togo’s ASKY
With its hub in Lomé, ASKY is the ‘king of connections,’ which drives significant service Africa-wide. That is despite being smaller in geographic size than Latvia, having a population of less than nine million, and being among the world’s poorest countries.
In contrast, nearby Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country with over 200 million people – doesn’t have a proper hub airline. It has flights to 19 other countries, over a quarter of which is the short hop to Ghana.
