Africa’s air cargo market is still constrained by trade barriers and challenges as well as geopolitical conflict, but there are positive changes happening, stressed industry leaders at Air Cargo Africa in Nairobi.
Racheal Ndegw, chief executive of Swissport Kenya, said that fragmentation is hampering the economies of countries on the continent during the ‘How African air cargo could be set to soar’ conference session.
Resources should be unified in Africa to effectively maximise trade and economic growth and ultimately boost airfreight, she suggested.
Grant Kemp, regional general manager Central (Africa, UAE, GCC, CIS & Levant), Etihad Cargo, added that Africa should focus on manufacturing and utilising resources rather than exporting them.
In comparison, Wilson Kwong, chief executive of Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) proposed that Africa needs more exports, adding that countries need to better work together as a continent to consolidate ideas and resources.
Geopolitical constraints such as conflict in Sudan and west Africa are also an ongoing hinderance to airlines, said Peter Musola, head of cargo commercial at Kenya Airways.
Kenya-Europe flights take longer due to flight route diversions, adding time and cost to cargo operations, he said, pointing out this is especially an issue when it comes to perishables cargo.
Eric Wilson, senior vice president cargo sales at Qatar Airways Cargo reiterated that conflict and political instability are barriers to commercial growth.
Meanwhile, Musola further pointed out that “liberalisation is crucial” for trade and state ratification of free trade area protocols “will further accelerate how airlines can execute all these opportunities”.
He added there is a “unique challenge” in the issue of the repatriation of blocked airline funds.
“Unless this is released then we will run into a serious problem.”
In addition to manufacturing, Kemp stressed that secondary airports will play a key role in African air cargo growth in terms of strategy around networks and capacity handling.
Wilson also pointed out that production isn’t always where hubs are and it’s difficult for airlines to serve every market, therefore “partnerships are important” to get secondary and tertiary markets connected in Africa.
From a ground handling perspective, collaboration and cooperation is key, said Ndegw and partnering with airports and government is important for “building fit for purpose facilities” such as warehouses, as well as in “investment in processes” all with a global standard.
Cargo volumes to double
On a positive note, Boeing’s regional director marker analysis Aaron Tayler shared that nine of the world’s fastest growing economies are in Africa and include Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Senegal.
As these economies grow this will “drive demand for trade and drive demand for air cargo”, he said.
Some of the investments that these countries have made to aid their economic success focus on airports and cold chain facilities, as well as policy reform, trade liberalisation and liberalisation of traffic rights.
African airlines saw 8.5% growth in 2024 and capacity increased by 13.6%, according to IATA data.
Tayler stated Boeing’s World Air Cargo Forecast predicts that African air cargo volumes will double over the next 20 years, driven by factors including economic growth, policy reform, liberalisation of traffic rights and trade. He said key verticals include perishables and e-commerce.
Highlighting, one of the standout trade lanes, Tayler said that the Africa-East Asia air cargo trade flow is strong.
He added that over the next 20 years “the volume on that flow is going to triple in size”.
Speaking about future freighter capacity in Africa, Tayler said that Boeing’s forecast for the African domestic market in the next 20 years is “a need for about 100 additional aircraft” meaning there is an expectation of “more than 150 aircraft by the early 2040s”.
But he added there is additional demand for capacity to serve the African air cargo market from carriers based elsewhere too.
He further said: “For the African market you need to look at replacement demand as well. The African fleet – a lot of it is getting quite old. In particular there are a number of 737 classic freighters with an average age well over 30 years old. There are some 727s flying around with an average age of 40, some are pushing 50 years old.”
Positive signs
Despite numerous challenges, there are signs of progress in Africa’s air cargo industry.
Though supply chain connectivity is an issue and better infrastructure is needed, there has been a revival of airlines which has added capacity and that will in turn offer more connectivity, said Musola.
Wilson said Qatar is seeing growth all over Africa based on its network of 28 cities served by belly capacity and four markets served by freighters.
Inbound- outbound market flows are in fact balanced, he remarked. Referencing Qatar’s African air cargo operations last year, he said: “What I particularly like about it is they’re balanced markets.”
He said outbound flows often don’t match inbound “but that’s not the case with Qatar in Africa. We have fairly equal flows inbound and outbound and that’s attractive for us and overall we’re seeing growth from everywhere”.
From Kenya Airways’ perspective, Musola said that the Kenyan flower industry suffered in the fourth quarter of 2024, with capacity relocated to Asia to serve the e-commerce market, but the vertical has now recovered.
So one of the big challenges that the industry here faces is instability of capacity and luckily Valentines 2025 happened at the same time as the Chinese New Year.
“The freighters had no e-commerce, so they had to jump into Kenya and I must say the first quarter so far has been excellent.”
Credit by Rebecca Jeffrey 3 March 2025