Slow vaccine rollout to hit African traffic: AFRAA

The number of passengers travelling by air in Africa will not return to 2019 levels until at least the start of 2024 because of the lengthy rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, the leader of airline association AFRAA has warned. Secretary general Abderahmane Berthe noted that with only 20% of the continent’s population to be vaccinated by the end of 2021, herd immunity – which occurs when at least 60% of the population have been inoculated – will not be reached until at least two or three years’ time. This means it is unlikely that air traffic levels will return to 2019 levels “until the end of 2023”, and possibly longer, says Berthe. He argues that governments “need to accelerate the vaccination of African citizens in order to remove travel restrictions and [allow air travel to] come back as soon as possible”. The rollout of the vaccine risks being delayed in the continent by a lack of cold storage facilities at airports, he notes.<br/>