https://aviationvoice.com/africas-busie ... 805231014/
As per the report, Africa's 10 busiest air routes by pax traffic in 2017 have been revealed according to a study conducted by Route, as listed below

1. JNB-CPT 4.7 million pax
2. JNB-DUR 2.87 million
3. CAI-JED 1.7 million
4. ABV-LOS 1.3 million
5. HLA-CPT 1.2 million
6. DUR-CPT
7. JNB-PLZ
8. JNB-DXB
9. CAI-RUH
10. CAI-KWI

Maybe it is not surprising that South Africa, given the size of its economy and population relative to other African countries, shows such a dominating presence in the top 10, with the domestic JNB-CPT sitting atop. The city of Johannesburg alone got half of the routes (4 for JNB and 1 for HLA), while CPT 3

It is also noteworthy that CAI has 3 routes in the list, all being international connections with neighboring Middle East airports, which is obviously a reflection of close economic and cultural ties in the region

That leaves the domestic Nigerian ABV-LOS the only route that breaks into the top 10 list in the rest of Africa, while JNB-DXB with a distance of 6,389 km is conspicuously the only long-haul intercontinental route in the top 10

What's surprising may be that ADD, a noted hub on the continent, fails to show up at all in the list, which also features no Africa-Europe link

Any thoughts?

I agree, absence of ADD is surprising. Also no route involving CMN.

Zoedyn wrote:

https://aviationvoice.com/africas-busiest-passenger-air-routes-revealed-2-201805231014/
As per the report, Africa's 10 busiest air routes by pax traffic in 2017 have been revealed according to a study conducted by Route, as listed below

1. JNB-CPT 4.7 million pax
2. JNB-DUR 2.87 million
3. CAI-JED 1.7 million
4. ABV-LOS 1.3 million
5. HLA-CPT 1.2 million
6. DUR-CPT
7. JNB-PLZ
8. JNB-DXB
9. CAI-RUH
10. CAI-KWI

Maybe it is not surprising that South Africa, given the size of its economy and population relative to other African countries, shows such a dominating presence in the top 10, with the domestic JNB-CPT sitting atop. The city of Johannesburg alone got half of the routes (4 for JNB and 1 for HLA), while CPT 3

It is also noteworthy that CAI has 3 routes in the list, all being international connections with neighboring Middle East airports, which is obviously a reflection of close economic and cultural ties in the region

That leaves the domestic Nigerian ABV-LOS the only route that breaks into the top 10 list in the rest of Africa, while JNB-DXB with a distance of 6,389 km is conspicuously the only long-haul intercontinental route in the top 10

What's surprising may be that ADD, a noted hub on the continent, fails to show up at all in the list

Any thoughts?

Interesting article. I figured that Ethiopian would have been on here somewhere. I know that ADD-DXB is pretty popular. ABV-LOS surprises me, since these cities are close enough together...

Cairo doesn't surprise me at all, given it's ideal location for a "hub" connection to the middle east (although you don't really hear about CAI as much as ADD in terms of their "hub" connections from the airlines' route networks)...

Yes, ADD? They need to fix the airport asap btw. I cannot imagine how the airport will cope with all those new ACs they are planning to add. ADD is a nightmare at the moment for connecting flights,

alyusuph wrote:

Yes, ADD? They need to fix the airport asap btw. I cannot imagine how the airport will cope with all those new ACs they are planning to add. ADD is a nightmare at the moment for connecting flights,

Huh... I never knew that ADD was really that bad. I've never flown through there before, but given the very extensive long-haul network that Ethiopian Airlines has, one would figure that it would be an ideal airport for connections...

Zoedyn wrote:

...the only long-haul intercontinental route in the top 10

What's surprising may be that ADD, a noted hub on the continent, fails to show up at all in the list, which also features no Africa-Europe link

I believe the list is only flights within Africa, with the bizarre inclusion of the Arabian Peninsula as part of Africa rather than it's correct placement in Asia. In the eyes of this report, JNB-DXB is not intercontinental. And European routes don't meet the criteria for inclusion.

NBO is also conspicuous in its absence

FA9295 wrote:

alyusuph wrote:

Yes, ADD? They need to fix the airport asap btw. I cannot imagine how the airport will cope with all those new ACs they are planning to add. ADD is a nightmare at the moment for connecting flights,

Huh... I never knew that ADD was really that bad. I've never flown through there before, but given the very extensive long-haul network that Ethiopian Airlines has, one would figure that it would be an ideal airport for connections...

The airport is small. ET's operation has outgrown the airport. The upside, though, is that, even if connection time is short, one does not have to walk too far to get from one side of the airport to the other. To continue growing, ET NEEDS a better ADD.

adamblang wrote:

Zoedyn wrote:

...the only long-haul intercontinental route in the top 10

What's surprising may be that ADD, a noted hub on the continent, fails to show up at all in the list, which also features no Africa-Europe link

I believe the list is only flights within Africa, with the bizarre inclusion of the Arabian Peninsula as part of Africa rather than it's correct placement in Asia. In the eyes of this report, JNB-DXB is not intercontinental. And European routes don't meet the criteria for inclusion.

Certainly there are popular tourist flights from Europe to Egypt and West Africa, even if you do not count Canary Islands as Africa. Local troubles may have reduced their popularity, though, and tourist flights may be scattered over a huge number of origin airports.

I agree - Ethiopian have such a dizzying network that it's surprising that it ain't there on this list.

adamblang wrote:

Zoedyn wrote:

...the only long-haul intercontinental route in the top 10

What's surprising may be that ADD, a noted hub on the continent, fails to show up at all in the list, which also features no Africa-Europe link

I believe the list is only flights within Africa, with the bizarre inclusion of the Arabian Peninsula as part of Africa rather than it's correct placement in Asia. In the eyes of this report, JNB-DXB is not intercontinental. And European routes don't meet the criteria for inclusion.

I was about to make the same comment until I saw adamblang's comment. Including the Arabian peninsula within Africa is truly bizarre! I wonder what the map would look like if really did only include flights WITHIN africa?

Gemuser

This is interesting stuff. Do you know where the full report can be found? It would also be interesting to see stats on intra-african travel excluding Egypt and South Africa.

I'm a bit surprised JNB-HRE and JNB-NBO are nowhere on the list. I somewhat thought these could possibly be some of the busiest routes on the continent.

Spiderguy252 wrote:

I agree - Ethiopian have such a dizzying network that it's surprising that it ain't there on this list.

That's exactly why it's not on the list...because ET has such a diverse and "dizzying" network, not focusing on necessarily bigger trunk routes. The Ethiopian domestic market isn't as big while they also focus on more destinations within many countries, instead of just one. Being a hub-and-spoke business, ADD won't really feature that high up. The other routes are just so much bigger, because of bigger O&D demand.

adamblang wrote:

Zoedyn wrote:

...the only long-haul intercontinental route in the top 10

What's surprising may be that ADD, a noted hub on the continent, fails to show up at all in the list, which also features no Africa-Europe link

I believe the list is only flights within Africa, with the bizarre inclusion of the Arabian Peninsula as part of Africa rather than it's correct placement in Asia. In the eyes of this report, JNB-DXB is not intercontinental. And European routes don't meet the criteria for inclusion.

Nowhere it states that this is only for within Africa, think it is any route including an African destination. JNB-DXB maybe carries just that little bit more than JNB-LHR which should be reasonably high up. Regarding the lack of other European inclusions, ie North Africa to Europe, I believe because this is more regarding per airport base and not per city...perhaps a lot more traffic between a certain destination in Morocco or Egypt to say London, but then it is possibly divided between several London airports

This list sounds wayyyy off.

This summer Paris-ALG is flown up to 21 dailies (including 6 WB), Paris-CMN up to 15 dailies and Paris-TUN up to 13 dailies.

Compared to CAI-KWI wich sees up to 10 daily flights (4 WB), or CAI-RUH which also sees "only" up to 10 dailies (6WB).

Thibault973 wrote:

This list sounds wayyyy off.

This summer Paris-ALG is flown up to 21 dailies (including 6 WB), Paris-CMN up to 15 dailies and Paris-TUN up to 13 dailies.

Compared to CAI-KWI wich sees up to 10 daily flights (4 WB), or CAI-RUH which also sees "only" up to 10 dailies (6WB).

The list in on airport to airport base...how are those divided between CDG and ORY?

grjplanes wrote:

Thibault973 wrote:

This list sounds wayyyy off.

This summer Paris-ALG is flown up to 21 dailies (including 6 WB), Paris-CMN up to 15 dailies and Paris-TUN up to 13 dailies.

Compared to CAI-KWI wich sees up to 10 daily flights (4 WB), or CAI-RUH which also sees "only" up to 10 dailies (6WB).

The list in on airport to airport base...how are those divided between CDG and ORY?

Mostly ORY, at least for CMN. It is around 10 ORY-CMN (Royal Air Maroc, Transavia, Jetairfly ...) and 5 from CDG (Air France and Royal Air Maroc). It's similar for Tunis and Alger.

Thanks for sharing! That is an interesting insight in a market that is really exciting and that at the same is very difficult to get accurate information upon. Here are my thoughts:
I am surprised and shocked that a route like JNB-PLZ can make into the top 10 and this shows how big the differences between South Africa and many other parts of the continent still are. We should certainly see more Nigerian domestic routes and maybe also Lubumbashi-Kinshasa in here at some point as well as some East African routes. There are excellent road connections in South Africa and people actually travel on the ground between major urban areas. Also, having JNB/HLA-CPT double represented on this chart is ridiculous, I get that the drive between the Cape and Gauteng is long and that these are two important population centres but still there are comparable metros all over the continent and it shouldnt be that even the smaller airport makes it.

alyusuph wrote:

Yes, ADD? They need to fix the airport asap btw. I cannot imagine how the airport will cope with all those new ACs they are planning to add. ADD is a nightmare at the moment for connecting flights,

I would think that ADD has a long way to go being solely a hub but having very limited O&D. I've passed through ADD many times and almost always no one would leave the airport which is a pity but don't forget how hard it is for many Africans to obtain . Nonetheless, as a connecting hub many routes won't go more frequent than perhaps double-daily which will make it hard to compete with routes with local demand.

grjplanes wrote:

adamblang wrote:

Zoedyn wrote:

...the only long-haul intercontinental route in the top 10

What's surprising may be that ADD, a noted hub on the continent, fails to show up at all in the list, which also features no Africa-Europe link

I believe the list is only flights within Africa, with the bizarre inclusion of the Arabian Peninsula as part of Africa rather than it's correct placement in Asia. In the eyes of this report, JNB-DXB is not intercontinental. And European routes don't meet the criteria for inclusion.

Nowhere it states that this is only for within Africa, think it is any route including an African destination. JNB-DXB maybe carries just that little bit more than JNB-LHR which should be reasonably high up. Regarding the lack of other European inclusions, ie North Africa to Europe, I believe because this is more regarding per airport base and not per city...perhaps a lot more traffic between a certain destination in Morocco or Egypt to say London, but then it is possibly divided between several London airports

The original link:
https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/br ... in-africa/

But yes, it specifically said:
"Routesonline analyses the top ten busiest air routes to, from and within Africa by passenger numbers"

Some routes like Paris to ALG/TUN/CMN are hurt by the fact that they are almost evenly split between ORY and CDG.

Not too surprised about South African domestic flights, though. CPT-JNB is among the Top 25 (or so) busiest routes in the world.

zakuivcustom wrote:

grjplanes wrote:

adamblang wrote:

I believe the list is only flights within Africa, with the bizarre inclusion of the Arabian Peninsula as part of Africa rather than it's correct placement in Asia. In the eyes of this report, JNB-DXB is not intercontinental. And European routes don't meet the criteria for inclusion.

Nowhere it states that this is only for within Africa, think it is any route including an African destination. JNB-DXB maybe carries just that little bit more than JNB-LHR which should be reasonably high up. Regarding the lack of other European inclusions, ie North Africa to Europe, I believe because this is more regarding per airport base and not per city...perhaps a lot more traffic between a certain destination in Morocco or Egypt to say London, but then it is possibly divided between several London airports

The original link:
https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/br ... in-africa/

But yes, it specifically said:
"Routesonline analyses the top ten busiest air routes to, from and within Africa by passenger numbers"

Some routes like Paris to ALG/TUN/CMN are hurt by the fact that they are almost evenly split between ORY and CDG.

Not too surprised about South African domestic flights, though. CPT-JNB is among the Top 25 (or so) busiest routes in the world.

I thought JNB-CPT was in the top 10 busiest?

northsouthnomad wrote:

zakuivcustom wrote:

grjplanes wrote:

Nowhere it states that this is only for within Africa, think it is any route including an African destination. JNB-DXB maybe carries just that little bit more than JNB-LHR which should be reasonably high up. Regarding the lack of other European inclusions, ie North Africa to Europe, I believe because this is more regarding per airport base and not per city...perhaps a lot more traffic between a certain destination in Morocco or Egypt to say London, but then it is possibly divided between several London airports

The original link:
https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/br ... in-africa/

But yes, it specifically said:
"Routesonline analyses the top ten busiest air routes to, from and within Africa by passenger numbers"

Some routes like Paris to ALG/TUN/CMN are hurt by the fact that they are almost evenly split between ORY and CDG.

Not too surprised about South African domestic flights, though. CPT-JNB is among the Top 25 (or so) busiest routes in the world.

I thought JNB-CPT was in the top 10 busiest?

By frequency, according to OAG they're #9 in the world.

By capacity, it should be just outside Top 10 or so.

Frequency-wise no other routes come close to those S. African domestic flights in Africa. Let say, traveling between West African cities? There are maybe 3-4 flights a day (if even that many) between those cities, compare to 40+ JNB-CPT, 30+ JNB-DUR, and even "lesser" routes like JNB-PLZ sees about 10 daily flights.