African airlines are back in growth territory, experiencing a significant surge in passenger demand in April after two consecutive months of decline. This positive trend was revealed in the latest air market passenger analysis for April 2025 by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

According to the IATA data, total demand for African airlines, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), soared by 13.6% compared to April 2024. This strong rebound was accompanied by an increase in total capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASK), which grew by 8.9% year-on-year

A regional breakdown of international passenger markets revealed that Asia-Pacific, airlines achieved the largest increase in demand with 14.4% year-on-year. The Latin American and African airlines followed with 13.9% and 13.6% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the Middle Eastern carriers, European carriers and North American carriers saw a 11.2%, 9.4% and 5.4% year-on-year demand respectively.

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However, Latin American airlines saw the largest increase in capacity with 14.6% year-on-year, followed by Asia-Pacific airlines with 12.7% and African airlines with 8.9% year-on-year. European, Middle Eastern, and North American carriers each increased by 7.7%, 6.6%, and 2.6% year-on-year, respectively.

Load factor for Asia-Pacific airlines, European carriers, Middle Eastern carriers, North American carriers, Latin American airlines and African airlines was 85.3%, 84.5%, 83.1%, 83.4%, 83.2% and 76.3% respectively.

"April was a positive month for travel. Growth strengthened, especially for international demand, which saw record load factors for the month. The return of the transatlantic market to growth is particularly encouraging. But there are some signs of fragility of consumer and business confidence with continued weakness in the U.S. domestic market and a sharp fall in North American premium class travel," said Willie Walsh, IATA's Director General..