Confidence in African travel remains high despite aviation disruptions linked to the conflict in the Middle East, says African Travel & Tourism Association (ATTA) in its latest market intelligence report.
ATTA surveyed 954 members in April, including lodges, camps, DMCs, tour operators, airlines and tourist boards, to assess the impact of aviation disruptions on bookings for travel to Africa.
Booking impacts linked to the Middle East conflict were reported by 77.5% of respondents with 62.6% citing disruptions to Gulf transit hubs, including Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, as the key operational challenge.
Despite this, confidence in Africa travel remains resilient with postponements continuing to outweigh cancellations. The report shows 51% of members are seeing clients postpone trips rather than cancel while 39.5% are still travelling but seeking reassurance and 31.3% are exploring alternative routing solutions.
Forward bookings
Outlook remains strong with 61% of African suppliers reporting demand equal to or higher than the same period last year and 23.4% reporting stronger demand.
“Enquiries for the remainder of 2026 are strong but getting these enquiries over the line with a commitment has become a whole lot tougher since fuel concerns have been raised. Bookings for 2027 are still converting well,” says Rupert Finch Hatton, Head of Sales at Nomad Tanzania.
Zanzibar and East Africa were particularly identified as destinations benefiting from alternative routing options and strong traveller demand.
Dominique Adolphe, Senior Sales and Marketing Manager at Diamonds Mapenzi, says: “Zanzibar is still incredibly accessible, despite using the Middle East as a hub, due to various alternative direct and indirect routes and charters.”
Air capacity
Additional aviation data from ATTA, in collaboration with Data Appeal and Mabrian, compares airline schedules prior to the escalation of the Iran conflict (February 28, 2026) with updated May-June 2026 schedules. It shows short-term capacity adjustments across global markets reflecting airspace disruption, operational uncertainty, rising fuel prices and higher insurance costs.
Global airlines have reduced seat capacity by 2.1%. The most significant changes are concentrated closest to the conflict zone. Western Asia records the steepest decline at 10.1%, followed by Southeast Asia at 7.2%, Sub-Saharan Africa at 2.9% and North Africa at 2.1%.
A separate comparison of May-June 2026 against May-June 2025 shows continued resilience across global aviation markets.
Global seat capacity is up by 2.3% in this comparison despite short-term disruption effects observed in the pre-escalation analysis. North Africa leads growth at 7.9% year-on-year, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa at 4.6%. Western Asia is the only major region still in decline, down 4.9% year-on-year.
“The conflict has created immediate operational challenges for aviation globally. Airlines are dealing with disrupted corridors, higher fuel prices and longer routing times,” says Virginia Messina, Group CEO of ATTA. “While there has been some short-term schedule adjustment, the continent continues to outperform many regions globally and the figures underline Africa’s growing strategic importance.”
Connectivity
International connectivity to Africa also continues to expand with 70 non-African countries operating direct flights to the continent in 2026.
Total inbound capacity is forecast to grow by 4.4% year-on-year with more than 89 million inbound seats scheduled for Africa. Europe remains Africa’s largest inbound market with more than 50.7 million inbound seats scheduled this year, up 5.6% year-on-year. Emerging markets continue to show growth, including Russia (+23.1%), Portugal (+13.4%), Italy (+11%), China (+11%), India (+9.3%), the UK (+8.6%) and Türkiye (+8.6%).
Regional connectivity also shows growth with intra-African connectivity forecast to exceed 112 million seats, up 6.6% year-on-year. South Africa remains the largest intra-continental market with 24.6 million seats. Nigeria (14.9%), Algeria (15.9%), Mauritius (16.6%) and Madagascar (14.6%) are among the fastest growing aviation markets on the continent.
