DATA: What are the Fastest Growing Airports in North Africa?

Ahead of this year's inaugural Routes Middle East and Africa forum, Routesonline is providing a snapshot on the leading airlines and airports and most used aircraft types across the region. Here we look closely at the airports serving North Africa and highlight the region's top performers.

The data is all supplied by OAG Aviation using its OAG Schedules Analyser tool.

Scheduled Air Capacity From North Africa (2005 - 2014)

Top Ten Airports in the North African Market (2014)

The hub models of the leading carriers in North Africa mean that Cairo International Airport in Egypt, a regional gateway for Star Alliance, and Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport accounted for more than a third of the total annual departures from this part of the world in 2014. Cairo International had a 22.2 per cent share and over ten million annual departure seats and Mohammed V International a 12.2 per cent share with almost 5.8 million annual departure seats.

The size and network of other state-controlled flag carriers mean that Houari Boumediene Airport in Algiers, Algeria (8.9 per cent) and Carthage International Airport in Tunis, Tunisia (7.6 per cent) are the third and fourth largest facilities in North Africa by departure capacity, while growing leisure demand and an influx of low-cost and charter operators makes Marrakesh Menara Airport the fifth largest in the area (5.3 per cent).

The importance of a gateway airport into countries in North Africa is clear when you consider that six different countries are represented in the top seven positions by departure capacity with only one having multiple airports in the top ten – Egypt with Cairo International Airport, Hurghada International Airport, Alexandria’s Borg El Arab Airport and Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport.

Fastest Growing Airports in the North African Market (2010-2014)

Looking at capacity data in the region across a five year period, it is Tunisia that is home to the fastest growing airport within and from North Africa between 2010 and 2014. The new Enfidha Hammamet International Airport has become the location of choice for local and foreign carriers bringing leisure carriers into the country, but also a secondary hub for national carrier Tunisair.

After opening in December 2009, the facility has grown 791.4 per cent from 81,500 departure seats in 2010 to 726,549 in 2014 and is now the 15th largest airport in the region. Significant growth during the period has also been recorded at Hurghada International Airport in Egypt (up 346.9 per cent), again buoyed by growing leisure demand.

Notable growth has also been recorded at Salé Airport in Rabat, Morocco (86.9 per cent), Benina International Airport in Benghazi, Libya (45.6 per cent); Zarzis International Airport, serving the Tunisian island of Djerba (33.7 per cent); Oran Es Sénia in Algeria (30.8 per cent); and Mohamed Boudiaf International Airport in Constantine, Algeria (27.4 per cent). Elsewhere in Algeria the 25.5 per cent growth at Houari Boumediene Airport in Algiers makes it the fastest growing of the largest airports in North Africa.

Data comparison between 2013 and 2014 shows a mixed performance among the top ten airports in the region by capacity, with six growing and four showing year-on-year departure capacity declines over the period, notably highlighting the political instability in parts of the region.

Seemingly having overcome its own political issues of recent years, Egypt is home to the fastest growing of the region’s top ten airports in 2014 with Hurghada International Airport witnessing a 42.4 per cent growth in departure seats within and from North Africa between 2013 and 2014. The facility, a popular gateway to many leisure resorts on the Red Sea coast, is in fact the only airport in the top ten to record a double-digit growth in capacity in 2014: Alexandria’s Borg Al Arab was the second fastest growing with a 5.4 per cent growth in departure seats.

The declines in capacity in 2014 came at Khartoum Civil Airport in Sudan (down 10.8 per cent); Carthage International Airport in Tunis, Tunisia (down 5.6 per cent); Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport in Egypt (down 2.7 per cent) and Tripoli International Airport in Libya (down 2.6 per cent).

Looking at the wider top twenty airports in the region it is Salé Airport in Rabat, Morocco which recorded the largest year-on-year capacity growth between 2013 and 2014 with a rise of 50.0 per cent, thanks in a big part to Irish budget carrier Ryanair. Notable growth was also recorded by Mohamed Boudiaf International Airport (up 12.7 per cent) and Oran Es Sénia in Algeria (up 12.4 per cent), while double-digit declines were recorded at Luxor International Airport in Egypt (down 20.3 per cent) and Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport in Morocco (down 14.2 per cent).

Scheduled North African Capacity by Aircraft Type

The chart below shows which aircraft types were most prevalent in the North African market during 2014. The schedule data shows the Airbus A320 (320) is the most widely used aircraft type in this market with a 22.2 per cent share of available seats with overall network capacity down 6.4 per cent between 2013 and 2014 to just over 10.5 million departure seats.

The second most utilised aircraft type in this market is the Boeing 737-800 (738) with a 22.0 per cent share, down 4.9 per cent in 2014, while the third most widely operated type by network capacity is the Airbus A319 (319) with a 5.4 per cent share, down 2.1 per cent.

The biggest rises in annual capacity among the top ten aircraft types were recorded by the Airbus A320 Sharklets (32A) with a 49.5 per cent rise in available seats in 2014 versus 2013: the year it made its first flights from the region; and the Boeing 737-800 Winglets (73H) with a 44.7 per cent rise. This highlights the increasing usage of more modern and efficient airliners in the North African market. The largest decline in annual capacity was recorded by the Embraer 170 (E70) with a fall of 18.8 per cent versus 2013.