Connecting African Urban Areas: Airline Networks and Intra-Sub-Saharan African Trade

Efficient air transportation services can potentially increase a country’s economic competitiveness by allowing access to world market, facilitating regional integration and labor mobility, and foster local industries such as tourism and the production of exotics. This can be especially true for landlocked countries, and for large countries where physical trading distances can be extensive and the terrain difficult. Air transportation can act as a means of transporting traded “goods” directly (including individuals engaged in tourism) and also provide complementary services of labor mobility for those engaged in the production of more bulky goods that are shipped by land and maritime modes. Despite efforts to enhance the efficiency of the African air transportation sector through such actions the Yamoussoukro Decision, African represents less than 2% of the world’s air passenger kilometers done. Here we examine the network of intra-Sub-Saharan African connections involving African airlines to highlight the differential access enjoyed by cities. Second, we develop a quantitative framework linking the availability of air connections to the main international trade flows in sub-Sahara Africa.