Eritrean Airlines Region

The recession and the economical slowdown is hurting the African aviation sector at the most inconvenient time.

Just when it seemed that the sector was experiencing tremendous growth rates due to increased economical activity with the outside world, the recession made an abrupt end to it.

The growth motivated African avitaion to improve the quality, safety and service to provide the same standard as western carriers, due to increasing partnership with other non-African airline as well as the growing number of freight and passengers volumes. In early April European and African representatives have met to discuss the establishment of a common strategic framework for air transport safety (European Commission).

Early during the year in January African aviation traffic dropped by 2.6% according to the International Airline Transport Association (IATA).

Many African airlines are reducing capacity by cutting on routes from this year. Eritrean Airlines stopped flying from Asmara to Frankfurt (capitaleritrea), Air Namibia suspended flying to London, Air Senegal stopped operating at all and many other carriers took similar actions.

The near future does not look promising as demand for travel and freight is continuing to drop.

In addition IATA expressed concerns that the Swine Flu outbreak will further reduce demand when the timing could not be worse. The latest IATA statistics show that airline revenues declined by up to 20% for the month of March.

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