The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has issued a sweeping challenge to African governments at its Focus Africa Conference in Addis Ababa, warning that elevated aviation costs, a persistent safety gap, and $774 million in blocked airline revenues are holding the continent’s air travel sector below its potential.
The conference, held on April 29 and 30, 2026, and hosted by Ethiopian Airlines, brought together government ministers, airline chief executives and regulators to address what IATA described as structural barriers preventing aviation from delivering its full economic and social value to Africa.
“Aviation is economic infrastructure for Africa. Its value lies in the long-term benefits it delivers,” said Kamil Alawadhi, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Africa and the Middle East. “The prosperity this generates will allow governments to push forward social and economic development more durably than any tax that might be collected from travelers.”
On safety, IATA acknowledged progress but stressed the gap with global standards remains wide. Africa’s accident rate fell from 12.13 to 7.86 per million sectors between 2024 and 2025, a meaningful improvement, but it remains six times the global average of 1.32. Of greater concern is the low rate at which accident investigations are completed and published — between 2019 and 2023, only 19 percent of African accident reports were finalised, against a global average of 63 percent. IATA also found that average implementation of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards across 46 Sub-Saharan African states stands at 60.34 percent, compared with the global average of 69.46 percent and a target of 75 percent.
On costs, IATA said aviation taxes and charges in Africa run approximately 15 percent higher than the global average. The organisation singled out a category of passenger data charges, known as API-PNR fees, calling for governments to reverse a growing trend of exceeding globally accepted norms. Ghana, alongside Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Kenya, was specifically cited by IATA for charges that go beyond global standards. IATA also called on West African states to move swiftly to implement a December 2025 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decision to eliminate aviation taxes and reduce select charges by 25 percent.
The blocked funds figure of $774 million, measured at the end of March 2026, represents the largest concentration of trapped airline revenues in any region globally. Algeria accounts for $258 million of that total, drawing an unusually direct rebuke from Alawadhi, who said government engagement had been unresponsive despite repeated outreach by IATA. The XAF currency zone, Mozambique, Eritrea and Angola make up most of the remainder.
IATA also used the conference to highlight Africa’s untapped potential in sustainable aviation fuel production, estimating that Sub-Saharan Africa could supply up to 106 million tonnes of feedstock suitable for sustainable fuel production by 2050, largely from agricultural residues and municipal solid waste.
