Africa’s 10 busiest airports account for 8.35 million seats in August

Africa’s 10 busiest airports accounted for a combined 8.35 million scheduled departing seats in August 2026.

Nairametrics arrived at the figure by summing OAG’s data for the 10 busiest airports in Africa in August 2026, ranked by scheduled departing seats.

The combined capacity represented about 30.6% of the 27.3 million scheduled seats available across Africa in August, with the continent’s overall capacity rising 8.4% compared with August 2025.

What the data is saying

Cairo International Airport ranked as Africa’s busiest airport in August, with 1.85 million scheduled departing seats, representing an 8.4% increase from the same period last year.

• Addis Ababa Bole International Airport ranked second with 1.25 million seats, also up 8.4% year-on-year, while Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport ranked third with 1.15 million seats, representing a 3.5% increase.
• Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport recorded 800,000 scheduled seats, up 10.1%, while Algiers Airport recorded 680,000 seats, representing a 7.2% increase.
• Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport accounted for 570,000 seats, up 10.5%, while Cape Town International Airport recorded 560,000 seats, representing a 6.5% increase.
• Tunis-Carthage International Airport ranked eighth with 530,000 scheduled departing seats, up 7.3% year-on-year.
• Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport and Hurghada International Airport completed the top 10, with 480,000 scheduled seats each.

Lagos recorded the fastest year-on-year growth among the 10 busiest airports, with capacity rising 25.6%, equivalent to 98,400 additional scheduled seats compared with August 2025. Hurghada followed with an 18.6% increase, equivalent to 75,300 additional seats.

Get up to speed

The 10 largest carriers operating in Africa accounted for 8.08 million scheduled departing seats in August 2026, representing about 30% of Africa’s total scheduled capacity of 27.3 million seats. Ethiopian Airlines had the largest capacity with 2.19 million seats, up 10.9% from 1.97 million seats in August 2025.

• Safair ranked second with 984,700 seats, down 1.1%, while Egyptair recorded 922,600 seats, up 8.1%.
• Royal Air Maroc recorded 868,100 seats, up 13.2%, while Air Algerie recorded the strongest year-on-year growth among the top 10, rising 16.8% to 825,900 seats.
• Airlink recorded 560,700 seats, Ryanair had 506,100 seats, Emirates recorded 430,200 seats and Transavia.com France had 419,300 seats.
• Kenya Airways recorded 373,700 seats, down 1.7% year-on-year, re-entering the top 10 as Nigeria’s largest airline, Air Peace, dropped out.

Europe remained Africa’s dominant international aviation market, accounting for 10.8 million scheduled international seats in August, or 50.35% of the continent’s 21.5 million international seats. The Middle East followed with 4.93 million seats, while Europe and the Middle East combined accounted for approximately 15.75 million seats, representing more than 73% of Africa’s international capacity.

International services accounted for 21.5 million scheduled seats, representing 79% of Africa’s total scheduled capacity, while domestic services contributed about 5.8 million seats and increased 11% year-on-year.

What you should know

Nigeria recorded the fastest growth among Africa’s top 10 country aviation markets in August, with scheduled airline seat capacity rising 37% year-on-year to 1.22 million seats. The country added 330,700 scheduled seats compared with August 2025, placing it ahead of every other top 10 African market in annual capacity growth.

• Nigeria’s domestic market recorded stronger growth, with scheduled seat capacity increasing 42.6% year-on-year to 907,600 seats, representing an additional 271,000 domestic seats.
• Egypt remained Africa’s largest country aviation market with 3.2 million scheduled seats, up 12.1% year-on-year, while South Africa followed with 2.34 million seats and Morocco ranked third with 2.21 million.

South Africa remained the continent’s largest domestic aviation market, with 1.6 million scheduled seats.