Blocked Funds and Broken Borders: Why Africa's Airlines Are Still Chained to Past

"The first thing I look at is the equipment manufacturers, such as Boeing, Airbus, and other aircraft manufacturers. They probably roll out these statistics just to ensure we start running. Because there's a huge demand of 1,165 aircraft that have been needed. And we now look at the subregion. Most of the African countries are struggling with their carrier, with the airlines and then the national carrier. But you see, what is really holding, what's causing this barrier that you have built down, is high operating costs, including the major elevated fuel import duties and excessive airport passenger fares. All this hits directly lower aircraft transitions. But when you have all this in place with fragmented markets, I mean, and with restricted bilateral agreement and economies of skills, then that is where the structural gap is, and it will take some time to close that gap. The potentials out there, the demands are there," Ohunayo noted.