Middle East and African airlines to post profit in 2022 as demand recovers – The National

Middle East and African airlines to post profit in 2022 as demand recovers – The National

Airlines based in the Middle East and Africa will end the year in the black, despite macroeconomic headwinds, as air travel demand outstrips available seat capacity, the International Air Transport Association's regional chief said.

Passenger traffic has reached 80 per cent of 2019 levels before Covid-19, lifting revenue and pushing operators into profitability, Kamil Al-Awadhi, regional vice president for Africa and the Middle East at Iata, told The National on the sidelines of the Bahrain International Airshow.

“To be quite frank, I'm quite proud of them. Having run an airline myself, I know how complicated it is on a normal day, without all these variables and uncertainty and lack of visibility,” Mr Al-Awadhi, the former chief executive of Kuwait Airways, said.