CNN journalist Larry Madowo has questioned why it is cheaper to fly outside the African continent but unbearably expensive to fly shorter distances within the continent.

This question arose after he compared flight prices from Nairobi to Abidjan and from Nairobi to Atlanta in the United States.

According to Madowo, his flight from Nairobi to Abidjan cost €4,814.84 (approximately KSh 705,706) for a business class seat aboard Kenya Airways. This was the price he paid on May 10 when he booked a return flight to Côte d’Ivoire.

The airfare to Abidjan was significantly higher than what Kenya Airways is currently charging for a flight to Atlanta. A spot check by Bizna Kenya on Wednesday, May 28, indicated that Kenya Airways was charging between Sh 586,000 and Sh 690,000 for a return flight to Atlanta.

Here is the post he shared on LinkedIn that stirred mixed reactions:

“My flight to Abidjan 🇨🇮 cost more than my flight to Atlanta from Nairobi. Both flights were in Business class. But why is it cheaper to fly to an American city two continents away than an African city six hours away? African leaders agreed to fix this in 1988 with The Yamoussoukro Decision to liberalize the continent’s air transport market. Why are we still here?” he wrote.

A spot check by Bizna also showed that Kenya Airways was currently charging around Sh 173,000 for business class and around Sh 50,000 for economy class on flights to Abidjan.

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The questions raised by Madowo, including the impact of the Yamoussoukro Decision, highlight the stark reality of how expensive it is to fly between African countries.

The Yamoussoukro Decision is a treaty adopted by most African Union (AU) member states to liberalize air transport services across the continent. Signed in 1999 and ratified in 2000, it aims to create a single African air transport market by removing restrictions on airline ownership, capacity, and frequency among signatory states.

The Yamoussoukro Decision led to the creation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) in 2018, with full implementation still a work in progress. Several AU member states have yet to fully adopt its policies, leading to continued fragmentation in Africa’s air travel sector.

The debate on why it remains expensive to travel within Africa is one that Kenya Airways CEO Allan Kilavuka has also weighed in on. Kilavuka has repeatedly blamed the trend of nearly every African country launching its own national airline, many of which are poorly managed and consistently loss-making.

According to Kilavuka, for Africa to build a strong aviation sector with affordable airfares, countries must embrace consolidation instead of taking pride in national airlines that lack the capacity to compete, yet continue receiving taxpayer support in hopes of a turnaround.

“The main challenge I’m seeing is that every country wants to have its own airline. There are 54 states in Africa. They all want to be global operators. We know that much is not possible. Even in Europe and the US, they went through consolidation. The pathway for consolidation is not easy. We are working on it and have shared the concept with some of our partners. I remain optimistic because I really think that if we want to develop air transport in Africa, we need to avoid this fragmentation. We were discussing how African countries need to move faster in implementing what we have agreed is a good strategy. Consolidation will reduce costs for operators, lower ticket fares for our customers, and improve connectivity. It’s a long way to go, but we remain optimistic,” Kilavuka said during the African Aviation Innovation Summit held in Nairobi.

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His sentiments were echoed by Abderahmane Berthe, Secretary General of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA).

High taxes on aviation fares, aviation inputs, and ground handling services within Africa were also cited by Kilavuka as contributing factors to expensive airfares.

He added that some governments still perceive aviation as a luxury and impose heavy taxes, not realizing the sector’s potential to spur economic growth if fares were more affordable.

According to Thuita Gatero, Managing Editor of ADN, another contributing factor to the high cost of air travel in Africa is excessive protectionism and regulation. Many African countries restrict the number of foreign airlines on local routes, avoid code-sharing arrangements, and overregulate local competitors. Even African airlines often require special permissions to operate cross-border routes.

“Instead of an open market where demand stimulates competition, we have silos, a fragmented market with underutilized planes, expensive routes, and passengers punished with exorbitant prices. Air travel should be a connector, but in Africa, it’s become a luxury, even for business elites. Compare this to Europe or the US, where streamlined infrastructure and competition push prices down.

In many African airports, however, travelers pay premium prices for a mediocre experience, no reliable lounges, patchy security systems, and limited ground handling capacity,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

Why Kenya Airways flights are expensive

Earlier, Kenya Airways explained why it is sometimes cheaper to fly with competitors from Nairobi to destinations such as South Africa rather than aboard KQ.

For example, KQ is currently charging between Sh 770,000 and Sh 900,000 for a one-way economy class flight to Durban, South Africa, on June 4. On the same day, Ethiopian Airlines is charging between Sh 49,000 and Sh 61,000.

According to a pricing official at Kenya Airways, the fare difference has to do with the convenience that local airlines offer passengers compared to foreign flights.

“Here, airlines exploit their home advantage. Yes, the other rivals will charge you less, but how many flights do they operate from Nairobi to that destination? There will be fewer compared to the local airline. You’ll find the local airline flying in the morning, midday, and evening, while the rival might only have one flight. Most local flights are direct, giving the customer more options and convenience, that’s why they cost more. With competitors, you’ll find that most don’t offer direct flights, so the customer has to use connecting flights, which wastes time,” the official said.