Meanwhile, international routes continue to dominate Africa’s aviation landscape, accounting for 77% of total capacity in December 2025 and growing 7.6% year on year.

At the same time, domestic capacity also expanded, rising 4.4%, underscoring renewed confidence in internal travel across several key markets.

At the domestic level, South Africa maintained its position as Africa’s largest aviation market, recording 1,803,097 seats in December 2025, up from 1,686,956 seats a year earlier.

The 6.9% year-on-year increase reflects a resilient domestic aviation system, supported by a wide spread of airports, strong intercity demand, improving airline balance sheets, and more stable operating conditions.

Following closely, Nigeria remains Africa’s second-largest domestic market, but its airline sector recorded a decline in December 2025, with total capacity falling to 850,420 seats. This represents a 7.5% year-on-year contraction, down from 919,400 seats in December 2024.

OAG data shows that Nigeria experienced one of the steepest declines in domestic airline capacity among major African markets.

The contraction reflects reduced airline activity across the domestic network, as persistently high airfares curtailed demand and constrained capacity deployment, despite Nigeria’s large population and strong underlying need for intercity travel.

Elsewhere, growth has been sharper. Tanzania recorded one of the fastest domestic expansions, with capacity surging 27% year on year to 415,100 seats, supported by tourism growth and infrastructure investment.

Algeria followed closely, posting a 26.2% increase to 388,700 seats, signalling a broad-based rebound across North Africa. By contrast, domestic capacity in the Democratic Republic of Congo fell by 28.6%, resulting in 40,600 fewer seats and highlighting the uneven pace of recovery across the continent.

Among individual carriers, Ethiopian Airlines continues to offer the largest domestic and international combined capacity, followed by South African Airways, which posted the fastest growth at 33.5%, and Royal Air Maroc at 24%.

Overall, December’s data shows that Africa’s domestic aviation recovery is uneven but gaining momentum in key markets, shaped by route density, holiday travel demand and investment in infrastructure.