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Business Reporter

AFRICAN airlines are projected to make a loss of $100 million translating to a loss of $0,93 per passenger per seat on airfares that are expected to reduce by five percent this year. From a global perspective the aviation industry is expected to carry 3,8 billion passengers in 2016 and only 2,4 percent of that will go to Africa. But while demand for passengers is going to increase by 6,9 percent, African airlines face critical challenges this year, the president of African Airlines Association Edmund Makona said yesterday.Mr Makona was speaking at the official launch of the Civil Service Travel Bureau, a subsidiary of Government’s premier logistics company CourierConnect.

He said the challenges airlines face require collaboration and cooperation among service providers to ensure success and the CSTB will help bridge the gap.

Within the economic blueprint ZimAsset, aviation is a key growth target among other sectors.

Aviation was also identified by the last African Union, as the key flagship of Africa agenda 2063.

“There is no way that this can be achieved without the attendant issues of acknowledging that aviation is the way to go.

“If we were to look at aviation today and consider it as a country it would be ranked 19th in terms of GDP rankings in the world contributing about $717 billion in terms of revenue in 2016 with passengers contributing about $515 billion of that,” said Mr Makona.