African air carriers experienced a significant surge in cargo demand, with the region posting a 9.4% year-on-year (YoY) increase in July. This marks the best performance for the continent since August 2024 and is a substantial improvement of 5.8 percentage points over the previous month.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its latest “Air Cargo Market Analysis” for July 2025, noted that African carriers maintained the strong momentum observed in June, securing their position as a leading force in the global air freight recovery. The data shows that the demand for African carriers’ international cargo, measured in Cargo Tonne-Kilometers (CTK), also rose by 9.4% YoY.
IATA highlights that the Africa-Asia trade lane was a key driver of this success, experiencing a double-digit growth of 12.1%, a result that surpassed June’s figures. This growth placed the route among the top performers globally, alongside Asia-Europe and intra-Asia routes.
In addition to rising demand, African carriers led all regions in capacity utilization. The Cargo Load Factor (CLF) for the region grew by 4.1 percentage points YoY to 46.8%, the highest CLF ever recorded for Africa in the month of July.
Passenger growth
African airlinessaw a 2.8% year-on-year increase in passenger demand. Capacity was up 2.3% yoy. The load factor was 74.9% (up 0.4 ppt compared to July 2024). Traffic on routes between Africa and Asia had a notable surge.
IATA noted that airlines in the region saw 3.9% yoy expansion in July, a significant increase from 0.6% seen in June – with the region accounting for 2% of global air traffic growth.
Africa airline recorded an increase in revenue growth posting a “2.8% Yoy growth in international Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK) in July”.
Airlines also carried more passengers selling more seats in July. “Passenger load factor (PLF) climbed 0.4% points YoY to 74.9%”.
Africa was the only region where airlines saw an increase in international PLF, though this was from a low base as all other regions have achieved PLFs above 80%. IATA noted.
