IATA urges African governments to treat aviation as economic infrastructure, not a tax base

Speaking at IATA's Focus Africa Conference in Addis Ababa, Regional Vice President Kamil Alawadhi urged African governments to treat aviation as strategic economic infrastructure rather than a source of narrow revenue. IATA-Oxford Economics data show air transport contributed about 75 billion USD to Africa's GDP and supported 8.1 million jobs in 2023, with the continent's aviation market projected to grow 4.1 percent annually and effectively double by 2044.