Why are African flights so expensive?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Prices are around 45% more expensive than equivalent trips elsewhere, and it's often cheaper to fly out of the continent and back in.
We look at the reasons Africans are paying higher fares for both internal and international flights, the impact this is having on business and tourism, plus the wider impact on the African economy.
Producer/ presenter: Rebecca Kesby
(Image: A plane on a runway in Nothern Africa. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From global current affairs to art, science and culture. |
| 0:05.0 | The documentary from the BBC World Service tells the world's stories. |
| 0:10.5 | Search for the documentary, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:16.7 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service with me Rebecca Kesbby. |
| 0:22.6 | Today, why is flying within Africa up to 45% more expensive than anywhere else and often much more difficult? |
| 0:31.9 | If you wanted to get to Tunis from Gabon's Libreville, for example, you might actually need to go through Paris. |
| 0:38.3 | And definitely the exorbitant cost of travel is another problem. |
| 0:43.0 | At the moment, Africans are suffering. |
| 0:45.4 | They're paying some of the highest fares of anywhere in the world. |
| 0:49.6 | And why are even non-flying Africans affected? |
| 0:52.9 | Aviation contributes directly to the GDP in every country. |
| 0:56.6 | It generates the work and it activates the economy, literally. |
| 1:00.8 | You can see the direct impact aviation has on the country's economy. |
| 1:06.3 | How can Africa fix its flying problem? |
| 1:09.8 | That's here on Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:17.5 | Africa's air passengers are paying higher ticket prices and higher taxes |
| 1:22.9 | than travellers just about anywhere else in the world. |
| 1:26.8 | Connectivity is also a problem, |
| 1:29.0 | often making it easier and cheaper to travel to another continent |
| 1:33.2 | than to pop next door to a neighbouring country, |
| 1:36.5 | as these long-suffering business travellers in the Kenyan capital Nairobi explain. |
| 1:42.1 | If you look at the cost of flights between our African countries, |
... |
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