At least 2.15 million metric tonnes of cargo transited via African airports in 2021, accounting for about 1.7% of all cargo volume worldwide.
This is according to the annual Africa airport traffic report 2021, released on August 8, 2022, by Airports Council International (ACI) Africa.
Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International was the leading in handling the biggest volume of the cargo, followed by Egypt’s International Airport of Cairo.
Below are the airports the busiest cargo airports in Africa:-
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
The Kenya Airports Authority’s main airport is Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) (KAA). The busiest airport in East Africa, it is also the largest aviation facility in Kenya. The entry and exit points for East Africa include JKIA, which is situated outside of Nairobi. JKIA features around 40 passenger airlines and 25 cargo airlines, according to KAA. JKIA handled 363,204 tonnes of cargo in 2021, outpacing all other airports in the continent in terms of overall cargo volume, according to ACI Africa.
International Airport of Cairo
International Airport of Cairo is Egypt’s largest and busiest airport is Cairo International. With nearly 40 airlines, including EgyptAir, Nile Air, and others, the airport serves as their main hub. The airport can handle 400,000 tonnes of cargo per year. It moved 333,536 tonnes of cargo in 2021.
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Oliver Reginald Tambo International Airport (OR Tambo)
OR Tambo (formerly known as Johannesburg International Airport) is the largest airport in South Africa, which serves as a hub for South African Airways. After 304,018 tonnes of cargo passed through the airport in 2021, it was placed third in that category. Oliver Reginald Tambo, an anti-apartheid politician, inspired the name OR Tambo. The airport can accommodate 28,000 million passengers a year.
Addis Ababa Bole International Airport
Ethiopian Airlines’ principal hub is Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. After carrying 226,417 tonnes of goods last year, the international airport was listed as the fourth busiest. A new passenger terminal at the airport was revealed in 2020 by the Ethiopian Airlines Group. The airline serves five continents.
Murtala Muhammed Airport Two
Ikeja, Lagos is home to Nigeria’s international airport. President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria formally opened it on March 22, 2022. The biggest airline operating at the airport without a national carrier is Air Peace Hopper. In 2003, Nigerian Airways went under. The privately held Air Peace has a subsidiary called Air Peace Hopper. In 2021, the airport handled 204,649 tonnes.
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Entebbe International Airport
The largest and sole international airport in Uganda, a landlocked nation in East Africa, is Entebbe International Airport. The airport was opened in1951 by British colonial authorities.
A total of $586 million is being spent on the airport’s modernization. The South Korean government provides funding for it in three stages. 65,115 tonnes of cargo passed through Entebbe International Airport during the period under study.
Aeroport Mohammed V
Morocco’s busiest airport, Aeroport Mohammed V, is located in Casablanca. The national airlines Royal Air Maroc and Air Arabia Maroc use it as their primary hub. In 2021, the airport recorded 64,373 tonnes of cargo.
Kotoka International Airport
Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) runs the international airport in Ghana. Several cargo airlines, notably Air Ghana, Cargolux, DHL Aviation, Emirates SkyCargo, Ethiopian Airlines Cargo, Qatar Airways Cargo, and Turkish Cargo, offer scheduled service to Ghana’s only international airport.
It has a 10,000 m2 cargo warehousing facility, which was inaugurated in 2016. 46,699 tonnes of freight were transported through the airport in 2021.
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