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Bench Events
Source: Bench Events |

Air Travel: East Africa Rising

Analysis of International air travel to East Africa this year reveals strong growth of 11.2% compared with the same period last year

An analysis of airport capacity, defined by the total number of seats, reveals that the stars in terms of growth are Nairobi, Kigali and Kilimanjaro

LONDON, United Kingdom, September 21, 2016/APO/ --

Analysis of International air travel to East Africa this year (January to August) by ForwardKeys, a company that predicts future travel patterns by crunching and analysing 14m booking transactions a day, reveals strong growth of 11.2% compared with the same period last year. 

This is an exceptional performance as growth for Africa as whole has been 5.6%, with countries like Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia seeing little growth or even a decline.

Olivier Jager, CEO, ForwardKeys, said: “We are seeing a tale of two Africas, with North African countries suffering from political instability and terror activities and Sub Saharan African countries powering ahead, with Ethiopia up 9.6%, Tanzania up 10.6%, Mauritius up 11.6% and Kenya up 14.9%. South Africa is up 11.4%”

Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, the picture is highly encouraging for East Africa.  International bookings for travel to East African countries, up to the end of December are 17.3% ahead of where they were at this time last year.  Looking at the main origin markets, the UK is 13.2% ahead, Germany is 21% ahead, The USA is 21% ahead, France is 16.1% ahead, the Netherlands is 16.6% ahead, South Africa is 9.4% ahead and India is 34% ahead.

An analysis of airport capacity, defined by the total number of seats, reveals that the stars in terms of growth are Nairobi, Kigali and Kilimanjaro.  Looking at international capacity in the periods Q3 2015 - Q2 2016 and Q3 2016 - Q2 2017, Nairobi grew 0% and 2% respectively, Kigali 5% and 4% respectively and Kilimanjaro 11% and 20% respectively.  Whilst a 2% growth for Nairobi may not sound so impressive, its capacity is around four times that of Kigali.

Looking at capacity for flights within East Africa in the periods Q3 2015 - Q2 2016 and Q3 2016 - Q2 2017, Nairobi grew 0% and 2% respectively, Kigali 13% and 5% respectively and Kilimanjaro 6% and 14% respectively.

The data has been released ahead of AviaDev, a new airline route development conference and AHIF, Africa’s highest profile hotel investment conference, which run concurrently at the Radisson Blu Hotel & Convention Centre in Kigali from 4-6 October 2016.

Jonathan Worsley, Chairman of Bench Events, which is organising AHIF and AviaDev, said: “We are seeing unprecedented interest in the AHIF AviaDev combination, with over twenty airlines signing up to talk about new air routes, with global CEOs of the world’s biggest hotel companies present to discuss their plans for Africa and with government ministers keen to attract inward investment; one has to ask: “Why is there such serious interest?” These highly encouraging booking figures explain it.”

Jonathan concluded: “If what is happening in Rwanda becomes a yardstick against which other East African countries measure themselves, I would expect this strong growth to continue.  There, a new airport is under construction 25km outside Kigali, with the ability to cater for 4.5 million passengers/ year, seven times today’s traffic.  The national airline has invested in new aircraft and set itself ambitious growth plans and the government is actively promoting Rwanda as a destination for conferences and exhibitions.”

Full details on AHIF and AviaDev, including the programme and speaker line-up can be found at www.Africa-Conference.com

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Bench Events.

International Arrivals in Africa

International Capacity East Africa

Intra East Africa - Capacity

Jonathan Worsley, Chairman of Bench Events

Olivier Jager CEO ForwardKeys

Origin Markets for East Africa On The Book

Media Contacts:
For further information and high resolution images, please visit http://www.Africa-Conference.com or contact: 
Sophie Luis 
+44 (0) 7961 145 787
sophie.luis@tarsh.com

David Tarsh 
+44 (0) 20 7602 5262
david@tarsh.com

About Bench Events:
Bench Events (www.BenchEvents.com) has a long track record of delivering the leading hotel investment events across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  Jonathan Worsley, Chairman of Bench Events is one of the founders of the highly successful International Hotel Investment Forum (http://www.BerlinConference.com)  in Berlin, now in its twentieth year.  In 2005, he was responsible for launching the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (http://www.ArabianConference.com) in Dubai and in 2008 the Russia & CIS Hotel Investment Conference (http://www.Russia-CISConference.com) followed by Central Asia and Turkey Investment Hotel Conference.  In 2011, with industry backing, Bench Events opened the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (http://www.Africa-Conference.com) which has been held in Casablanca, Nairobi, Addis Ababa and this year to be held in both Lomé, Togo and Kigali, Rwanda.  Bench Events addressed a gap in the market in 2014 with the successful launch of the Global Restaurant Investment Forum (http://www.Restaurant-Invest.com) in Dubai followed by the 2015 edition of the Mediterranean Resort & Hotel Real Estate Forum in Madrid.  More recently it has moved into the aviation development space with the launch of the AviaDev Conference.  It also partners with the British Hospitality Association on the annual British Hospitality & Tourism Summit held in London.  Bench Events has recently announced a joint venture partnership with Arturo Rosa on the South American Hotel Investment Conference (SAHIC) for Latin America.

Bench Events is an industry platform for growth, networking and thought leadership around the globe.  www.BenchEvents.com

Sponsors of AHIF Rwanda are: 
Host Partners: Rwanda Development Board; Rwanda Convention Bureau, Remarkable Rwanda; Platinum Sponsors: AccorHotels, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, Grant Thornton, Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International; Gold Sponsors: African Export Import Bank, Areen Hospitality Design, Best Western Hotels & Resorts, Colliers International, France 24, France Kitchen, Horwath HTL, Hotel Partners Africa, Hotelier Interiors, HVS, Hyatt, Insignia, JLL, Kempinski, KFW DEG, Kinza Yapi, Louvre Hotels Group, Movenpick Hotels & Resorts, Onlime, Starwood Hotels and Resorts International, STR, Swiss Education Group, Wyndham Worldwide

About ForwardKeys:
ForwardKeys predicts future travel patterns by crunching and analysing 14m booking transactions a day. It is used by travel marketers, retailers, hotels, destination marketing organisations (DMOs), financial institutions, car rental companies, tour operators, online travel agents (OTAs), and other traveller-focussed businesses worldwide to monitor and anticipate traveller arrivals and stay ahead of the trends from a particular origin market at a specific time.  The analysis enables them to anticipate the impact of events, better manage their staffing levels, fine tune supply requirements, adjust and measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and predict future market trends. ForwardKeys’ data is retrieved daily from all the major global reservation systems worldwide.