African airlines continue to face deep structural disadvantages that make global competition inherently unfair, according to the Chief Executive Officer of Ibom Air, George Uriesi, who says the industry is fighting with severe constraints already in place.
Uriesi argued that African airlines face a cluster of five cumulative barriers that distort competition long before market forces apply. These include punitive aircraft financing costs, insurance premiums driven by jurisdiction rather than safety performance, and excessive taxes and charges embedded in fares before tickets are sold.
In addition, African airlines contend with limited access to global capital markets and persistent risk perceptions that raise borrowing costs across the value chain. Together, these constraints leave African airlines structurally disadvantaged, even when operational standards and corporate governance meet international benchmarks.
Uriesi spoke during the second part of a panel session at the Africa Development Bank’s Africa Private Capital Mobilisation Day, held at Lancaster House in London. The event also featured the launch of the Bank’s Integrated Aviation Transformation Programme for Africa, designed to draw international private capital into African aviation.
African Airlines’ Conundrum
Using a vivid analogy, Uriesi said African airlines enter the global market already disadvantaged, long before competition truly begins.
“If you add up everything, you’re actually in the ring completely tied up and you are punching back, being punched because you can’t defend yourself,” he said.
“And so that’s the problem of the African airline.”
He said the experience of African airlines is unlike that of carriers in Europe or North America, where access to capital and risk perception are fundamentally different.
Uriesi welcomed what he described as a shift in thinking by the African Development Bank, particularly its growing recognition of aviation as a strategic economic enabler rather than a revenue source to be exploited.
“I was very happy to get the introduction of the African Development Bank’s realisation. I thought AfDB has woken up. It’s morning in AfDB,” he said.
According to Uriesi, access to affordable aircraft financing remains the single greatest challenge facing African airlines, outweighing operational competence, fleet efficiency, or governance structures.
“We need to be able to access it. It’s the biggest issue by far,” he said. “If you take away the finance costs of aircraft, my airline automatically becomes a very highly profitable airline. We know what to do with the aeroplanes.”
He stressed that African airlines are not short of operational discipline or financial transparency, pointing to Ibom Air’s track record since launch.
“We’ve spent the six and a half years we’ve been in operation doubling down on making it clear to everybody that we know what we’re doing,” Uriesi said.
“Six straight years of external audit reports from PricewaterhouseCoopers.”
Despite this record, he said financing costs remain punishing. Ibom Air has ordered and taken delivery of the first two aircraft in a planned fleet of eleven Airbus A220 jets, widely regarded as among the most fuel-efficient in their class.
However, Uriesi said the benefits of that efficiency are largely absorbed by lenders.
“As efficient as that aeroplane is, it’s so damn bloody efficient, all of that goes to the bank,” he said.
“The local banks that have financed us. We just get a little few cents on top of it.”
He said the underlying business case for African airlines becomes clear once financing distortions are removed.
“When we look at the business that that aeroplane does, if we didn’t have to pay that much interest, jeez, it would be so good. So good,” he said.
Uriesi contrasted African airlines with their European counterparts, highlighting stark differences in borrowing costs that immediately undermine competitiveness.
“My counterpart from Europe buys an A220, he’s got financing at about very low single digits,” he said. “I get my A220 from very high double digits in interest rates.”
He said this imbalance alone distorts the competitive environment.
“He’s paying 100 bucks for his aeroplane a month. I’m paying 500 bucks for my aeroplane a month,” Uriesi said. “Already one of my hands is tied behind my back in the boxing ring.”
Beyond financing, Uriesi said African airlines are penalised by insurance premiums driven by jurisdictional perception rather than safety performance.
“Insurance says, just because of my jurisdiction, I’m risky,” he said. “I’m as safe as anybody else as far as I know.”
He said the disparity is stark.
“My counterpart in Europe is paying $100 for insurance. I’m paying $300 for my insurance,” he said. “One of my legs has a POP plaster on it.”
Uriesi added that taxes and fees further weaken African airlines before a single ticket is sold, embedding costs into fares from the outset.
“The taxes and fees we pay already, before we charge the passenger, is $203,” he said. “From January 1, when the Ghanaians add the $18 they want to add, we’ve become $221.”(On the Lagos-Accra route).
He said airlines must then absorb operating costs while still attempting to price tickets that Africans can afford.
“Before I charge my price, I just have so much,” Uriesi said. “Then I have to look for how much on top I can put for someone to be able to buy it. It’s ridiculous.”
Uriesi likened the situation facing African airlines to a prolonged loss of cabin pressure, warning that the industry is nearing a critical point.
“There’s been a lot of pressure for a while and the oxygen hasn’t happened,” he said.
“Please drop the oxygen mask quickly so we can get out of here.”
He stressed that governance is not the issue, insisting African airlines are ready to compete if structural barriers are removed.
“Corporate governance is in place,” Uriesi said. “We’ve tried to build an institution that is capable of being competitive anywhere else in the world.”
He identified financing costs and excessive charges as the primary obstacles, urging policy makers to rethink their approach.
“This little industry of ours is a leading indicator,” he said. “It’s not an opportunity to charge and collect money from it and kill it.”
Uriesi called on the AfDB, the African Union, and governments to recognise that African airlines are critical to trade, investment, and economic integration.
“Remove the charges. Remove most of them,” he said. “Allow us to fly and price tickets when Africans can buy them.”
He warned that without urgent reform, African airlines will continue paying two to three times more than their global peers, remaining trapped in an uneven fight.
“On top of that, I have to pay twice or thrice what my colleagues are paying for the aeroplane everywhere else in the world,” Uriesi said.
