Ethiopian Airlines Sees 30% Rise In Passengers As Demand Grows By 8.1% For African Airlines

Ethiopia’s flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines (ET), expects to carry up to 30% more passengers in the year ending in June compared to the previous year. The growth is primarily driven by the airline’s new routes and the rebound in global air travel. This comes as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) released its latest figures on global passenger demand, indicating an 8.1% year-on-year increase for African airlines in March 2024.

Ethiopian Airlines’ growth trajectory

Last month, Ethiopian Airlines celebrated 78 years since its first commercial service by operating a special flight to Cairo where airline executives served as part of the crew. The carrier has seen significant growth over the last decade, positioning itself as Africa’s largest airline by several parameters. In an interview with Reuters, Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tasew disclosed that the airline expects a 30% growth in passengers carried by June 2024.

In the year ending June 2023, the carrier airlifted about 13.9 million passengers. ET’s passenger numbers in the first three quarters of its current financial year indicate that it is on course to achieve its growth target for the full year. The anticipated growth includes a 20% increase in revenue to $7.3 billion. Over the past year, the airline has launched flights to new destinations like London Gatwick, resumed schedules to destinations like Madrid and Bangui, and increased frequencies on existing routes like Addis Ababa-Seoul.

However, like many other carriers worldwide, the Addis Ababa-based carrier has also been affected by aircraft delivery delays and supply chain constraints. The Ethiopian Airlines CEO said to Reuters,

This year, Boeing has been under intense scrutiny since the Alaska Airlines incident in January and several other issues that followed. Despite the safety and quality concerns, the Ethiopian Airlines boss expressed his confidence in Boeing and is positive the manufacturer can fix its issues. “We believe that Boeing is in a good position to fix all these,” he added.

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Increased year-on-year passenger demand

According to IATA, African airlines saw an 8.1% increase in demand, measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK), in March 2024 compared to March 2023. Capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometers (ASK), increased by 11.0% in the same period. However, the average passenger load factor stood at 70.3%, a 1.9ppt decrease compared to March 2023.

Photo: LO Kin-hei | Shutterstock

All regions showed strong growth for international passenger markets in the period under review. While demand in Africa grew by 8.1%, the global industry saw a 13.8% YoY increase in March 2024. Across all regions, international demand was up by 18.9%, while domestic demand increased by 6.6%. International capacity increased by 18.8% year-on-year, while domestic capacity increased by 3.4%. IATA Director General Willie Walsh noted,

“Demand for travel is strong. And there is every indication that this should continue into the peak Northern Summer travel season. It is critical that we have the capacity to meet this demand and ensure a hassle-free travel experience for passengers. That means making urgent progress to resolve supply chain issues and for airports and air traffic management to be fully staffed and operating at maximum efficiency.”

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While there is a surge in capacity, load factors have dropped to 74%.

The latest figures show that Africa still accounts for 2.1% of global passenger traffic and 2.0% of the air cargo market. On the cargo side, African carriers saw a 14.2% YoY increase in demand in March 2024. Meanwhile, capacity increased by 17.3%, continuing the upward trend. Demand on the Africa-Asia market increased to 22.9% year-on-year but decreased by 19.8ppt compared to February’s performance. This was the most significant contraction across the major route areas.

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