Growth in Air Transportation of Sub-Saharan African Nations

Over the last decade, SSA nations have undergone unequivocal development in air transportation. This development has been exemplified by a 45 percent rate in passenger traffic which is comparable to that of the United States during the same period. This paper assesses the development of air transportation and its role in the transportation system in twenty five SSA countries from 1990 through 2006. The paper uses the number and quality of airports in 2006 and the1990-2004 progress in air transport performance as represented by the number of passengers and quantity of cargo handled by air ports and transported by air carriers and the number of aircraft departure. Based on the examination of these factors three groups of countries in SSA have been identified: countries with high growth rates, low growth rates, and negative growth rates in air transportation. The overall division of countries into these groups was based on the average growth rate in the performance factors (i.e., number of passengers, quantity of freight and aircraft departure). Eight countries have been classified into either high growth rate, low growth rate, or negative growth rate consistently in all of the factors. Noting that the relationship between air craft departure and air cargo is statistically insignificant, regression results indicate that in the twenty five countries of interest, an average increase of 141 passengers and 8,000 tons per kilometer result in an increase of one aircraft departure.