Outbound flights from Africa to Europe emerged as the continent’s largest travel corridor in December 2025, accounting for the highest share of international seat capacity.
This data was obtained from the OAG Africa Aviation Market, which shows Europe as the top destination for African travellers, far ahead of other regions.
Airlines operated about 9.62 million seats on Africa–Europe routes, an 8.7% increase from 8.85 million in December 2024.
What the OAG report is saying
According to OAG’s December 2025 data, Europe continued to dominate Africa’s international air travel. The increase of 769,918 seats year-on-year confirms strong and sustained demand between the continent and Europe.
Intra-African travel remained the second-largest market. Seat capacity on routes within Africa rose from 3.99 million in December 2024 to 4.11 million in December 2025, marking a 2.8% increase.
The Middle East followed, with airlines operating 4.45 million seats, up 8.2% from 4.11 million in December 2024. The region continues to serve as a major transit and destination hub for African travellers, especially through Gulf airports like Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi.
“Capacity to Europe remains the largest international destination region with 9.6 million seats, 769,900 additional seats vs December 2024.
“Capacity to the Middle East increased by 338,400 seats compared to last year,” the report read in part.
Asia-Pacific routes recorded 688,289 seats in December 2025, up 13.2% from 607,991 in December 2024, showing notable growth even though the region accounts for a smaller share of outbound traffic.
The Americas saw capacity rise from 428,225 seats in December 2024 to 493,014 seats in December 2025, a 15.1% increase, reflecting a growing but still limited market for African travellers.
What you should know
The dominance of Europe in African air travel is mirrored in Nigeria’s outbound patterns.
According to the latest available IATA 2023 data, European cities appeared two times in the top 10 destinations for Nigerians, collectively accounting for approximately 481,100 passengers, the highest among all regions. This includes London with 421,300 passengers and Manchester with 59,800 passengers.
Within Africa, Accra, Johannesburg, and Cairo carried about 204,900 passengers in total, showing that regional travel remains significant but smaller than Europe.
- North American cities—including Toronto, New York, and Washington D.C.—handled around 150,500 passengers, while Middle East cities Jeddah and Madinah together had about 137,600 passengers.
- In 2023, international flights accounted for 23% of Nigeria’s total departures, equal to 2.1 million passengers. Europe led with 780,700 passengers (38%), Africa followed with 485,400 passengers (23%), and North America had 373,000 passengers (18%).
Nigerian outbound flights represented 0.1% of global international traffic and 2.9% of regional traffic, with cumulative growth over the last decade at -7.2%.
