A worldwide shortage of spare parts for kaput planes is being blamed for the grounding of African airlines aircraft throughout the course of the past year.
A report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) points out that flight delays and cancellations have resulted from the situation and name-checked African airlines such as Air Senegal, Air, Kenya and Uganda Airlines as adversely affected.
These relatively smaller enterprises have at least one of their planes grounded last year, a situation which could cost Africa’s aviation industry over $11 billion, according to the IATA study.
The study indicates that should the situation persists, it could negatively impact tourism to Africa as uncertainties becloud flight bookings to destinations on the continent.
However, barring this situation the continent’s aviation industry is being projected to grow in the intervening few years thanks to a rising middle class the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) and intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as catalysts.
WN/as/APA