By Patricia Mollyne Mataga
There are no fewer than 417 airports across Africa, based on data from the Airports Council International (ACI).
ACI in its 2022 statistics further revealed that there were over 178.66 million travelers that went to the airports in the continent.
It is from this data that a list of the busiest airports was developed form – based on the number of travellers annually.
10. Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja (Nigeria)
Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) was ranked the 10th busiest airport for 2022.
ACI data shows that the airport processed no fewer than 5,985,596 passengers in the year. This was an improvement of 11 per cent when compared with the previous year.
The Abuja-based airport has a total of 59 weekly frequencies making use of its facilities.
9. Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers (Algeria)
Located at the heart of the Algerian capital, Algiers, Houari Boumediene Airport had 6,317,793 travellers in 2022, making it the ninth busiest in Africa.
8. Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos (Nigeria)
The Lagos-based airport had 6,526,023 travellers – a 15 per cent growth when compared to the same period in 2021.
The airport has 78 weekly frequencies.
7. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi (Kenya)
JKIA which is based in the country’s capital – Nairobi, processed 6,556,569 travellers in 2022 to make it the busiest in Kenya and East Africa.
The airport has scheduled flights to more than 50 different countries.
On average, JKIA welcomes about 6 million travellers yearly and has been consistent in the past years.
6. Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
Bole International Airport is the major hub of the Ethiopian Airlines. It is the the sixth busiest airport in Africa with 6,656,516 air travellers.
It is worth mentioning that Ethiopian Airlines is the continent’s largest airline in terms of passengers carried, and it is also the world’s fourth-largest airline in terms of nations served.
5. Hurghada International Airport
The airport based in Egypt emerged as the fifth busiest with 7,164,088.
The airport was also the second busiest in Egypt after Cairo International Airport (Egypt), which topped the list in Africa in 2022.
Hurghada Airport is located 5 kilometres southwest of El Dahar and currently has only one terminal. The airport connects Egypt to international destinations in Europe, North America, and Asia.
4. Mohammed V International Airport (Morocco)
Based in Casablanca, Morocco, Mohammed V International Airport is the fourth busiest airport in Africa according to the Airports Council International (ACI).
The airport welcomed 7,637,643 passengers within the year, slightly lower than Cape Town International Airport, Cape Town, which equally had the same 7 million figure within the period.
Casablanca is Morocco’s most populous and influential city and a point of departure and arrival for Moroccans travelling to and from Europe, an advantage, which further increased the number of air travellers to it.
The airport also serves as the primary hub for the popular Royal Air Maroc airline, which flies the Moroccan flag.
3. Cape Town International Airport (South Africa)
It is regarded as the continent’s most beautiful airport with state-of-the-art facilities and an automated baggage processing system that can handle 30,000 bags per hour.
In 2022, the airport processed 7,876,183 travellers making it the third busiest.
2. O. R. Tambo International Airport (South Africa)
With about 190 scheduled flights weekly and a capacity of up to 25 million passengers per year, O. R. Tambo International Airport is the second busiest airport and the primary airport for domestic and international travel to and from South Africa.
It had 14,789,508 passengers in 2022, according to ACI data.
The airport was opened in 1952 and was known as Johannesburg International Airport until 2006 when it was renamed after anti-apartheid leader Oliver Reginald Tambo.
- Cairo International Airport (Egypt)
Cairo International Airport takes the crown of being the busiest after it ferried 20,009,336 within a year.
On average weekly, the terminal handles approximately 115 flights, with a total yearly usage capacity of 20 million passengers to approximately 84 destinations across the world.
