Africa’s busiest air routes revealed as British Airways announces new flight from Heathrow to Marrakech

Only three African nations appear in the list: South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt

On the day that British Airways has announced a restored link from Heathrow to Marrakech in Morocco, the busiest passenger air routes in Africa have been revealed.

BA will fly four times a week from Terminal 5 to the Moroccan city from 28 October 2018. It already flies from Gatwick to Marrakech.

Sean Doyle, British Airways’ director of network and alliances, said: “Marrakech is one of the key tourism destinations in north Africa, so we’re excited to serve it from two of our London airports.”

Earlier this month BA announced the first nonstop flights from Heathrow to the South African city of Durban, from 29 October. The new route will take the airline’s total of destinations in Africa to 10.

But British Airways formerly served many more cities on the continent – including Casablanca, Tunis and Sharm el Sheikh in North Africa, and Entebbe, Dar-es-Salaam, Harare, Lilongwe and Lusaka south of the Sahara.

Research by Routes, the network development events organiser, has revealed the 10 busiest passenger air routes in Africa. Only three African nations appear in the list: South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt. The flights are either domestic services – mainly in South Africa – or links to the Middle East.

By far the busiest link is the 800-mile hop between Cape Town and Johannesburg’s O R Tambo Airport. In 2017 almost 13,000 people flew the route each day, on an average of 95 flights. The average fare paid was the equivalent of £58.

The route is the 12th busiest in the world, and has twice as many passengers as the most popular link in Europe, between Paris Orly and Toulouse.

The link from the same Johannesburg airport to Durban is the second busiest in Africa, with 7,900 passengers per day. It covers a distance of only 310 miles.

The leading international route is the short 755-mile hop from Cairo along the Red Sea to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, which takes third place overall with 4,700 passengers a day.

The main domestic flight in Nigeria, between the capital Abuja and the largest city, Lagos, takes fourth place with a daily average of 3,500. The air distance is 318 miles.

The top five is completed by a route from Cape Town to Johannesburg’s other airport, Lanseria, with an average of 3,400 passengers a day.

The next two links are also South African domestic services: Durban to Cape Town (3,100 passengers per day) and O R Tambo to Port Elizabeth (3,000).

Eighth place is taken by easily the longest route: almost 4,000 miles from Johannesburg to Dubai. The only airline on the route is Emirates, which flies the eight-hour route four times a day each way — with one service operated by an A380 SuperJumbo. An average of 2,800 passenger make the trip each day.

Ninth and 10th positions are additional links from Cairo to the Middle East: to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and Kuwait, both with 2,700 passengers daily.

Missing from the top 10 is any international flight wholly within Africa. With a few exceptions, notably Ethiopian Airlines, aviation in Africa is characterised by inefficiency, high fares and government restrictions on flights.

The two largest cities in Africa, Lagos and Cairo, are linked by only one small Boeing 737 flight a day. The distance between the two biggest American cities, Los Angeles and New York, is the same

The African Union has been working towards a single market in aviation, but progress is slow.

Steven Small, brand director of Routes, said: “Routes Africa will bring together senior decision makers from Africa’s airlines, airports and destinations to plan new services.

“They will also discuss increasing the frequency and capacity of the existing routes that are popular with passengers.

“The negotiations in Accra could lead the way to the busiest African routes of the future.”