African Airlines Face $8 Billion Loss as Royal Air Maroc Struggles with Debt

With the Covid-19 pandemic, airlines are going through difficult times with their entire fleet grounded since the start of the global health crisis.

In the first part of the monthly analysis of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the air transport industry in Africa, the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) revealed the airlines most impacted by this Covid-19 crisis, reports Jeune Afrique.

For Abderrahmane Berthé, Secretary General of AFRAA, the most affected companies are those with the most activity. The most impacted of all these companies is Ethiopian Airlines. According to the same source, a capacity of 3.8 billion available seat kilometers on this company (ASK, standard unit of measurement in the aviation sector) has been removed from the network due to Covid-19.

The Moroccan airline, ranked 4th among the countries affected by the crisis, lost a total of 1.6 billion ASK, far behind Egyptair (1.7) and ahead of Kenya Airways (1.6).

In addition to these considerable losses, the companies should also lose nearly 14% of passenger traffic revenue in the first quarter of 2020 and more than 90% in the second quarter. As for the resumption of activities, AFRAA, pending the results of an upcoming assessment, is counting on a gradual recovery in the second half of the year.