Kenyan low-cost carrier Jambojet led African airlines in aircraft filling in 2024, achieving an average load factor of 80.4 percent across all its flights, a sign of strong demand for its routes amid a resurgence in domestic air travel across the continent.
Load factor is the percentage of an airline’s seats that are filled with paying customers over a given period and it indicates efficiency and profitability for a carrier.
Last year, the airline’s load factor rose slightly by 0.2 percentage points from 80.2 percent, toppling seasoned performers like Air Mauritius, whose load factor fell to 79.8 percent from 82.9 percent, latest data from the Africa Airlines Association (Afraa) shows.
“The highest average passenger load factors in 2024 amongst the top 5 Airlines were Jambojet at 80.4 percent, Air Mauritius at 79.8 percent, Nouvelair Tunisie at 78.4 percent, Royal Air Maroc at 77 percent and Kenya Airways at 75 percent,” said Afraa in its 2025 annual report released Monday.
Jambojet was the third leading in 2023, coming after South African budget airline Safair and Air Mauritius. Safair did not report its performance last year hence was not ranked. A total of 23 airlines reported this year.
The performance highlights the growing appeal of low-cost models in Africa’s fragmented aviation market where high fares and limited connectivity have long constrained demand.
With about 52 percent market share in Kenya’s domestic air travel market, the rising load factor reflects sustained growth and demand in the local aviation industry, which is Jambojet’s primary market.
A subsidiary of the flag carrier Kenya Airways, Jambojet serves eight domestic and regional destinations from its Nairobi hub. Its local routes include Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Malindi, Lamu and Diani, while its regional routes are Zanzibar and Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 2024, it ferried 1.257 million passengers, an increase of 3.9 percent from the 1.209 million it carried in 2023. More than 98 percent of its customers were domestic, while its regional flights ferried 23,000 passengers, up from 15,000 in 2023.
Overall, the African airline industry’s load factor fell in 2024 to 75 percent from 76.1 percent in 2023, even as the global average rose to 83.5 percent from 82 percent, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Jambojet’s higher load factor helped lift its revenues for the year, making it among the few airlines on the continent that reported net positive operating profit in 2024, according to its disclosures to Afraa.
Disclosures by its parent firm Kenya Airways, however, showed it posted a tax loss of Sh3.9 billion in 2024, largely due to forex losses. In the region, apart from Jambojet, only Kenya Airways, Ethiopian and Skyward reported net positive earnings in 2024.
Jambojet operates De Havilland Dash 8-Q400s, which typically have 78 seats, meaning its flights normally have about 62 passengers. It has eight planes with six in active service.
The budget carrier’s performance was supported by growing domestic air travel amid expanded airport and airstrip infrastructure across the country.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that the value of output generated by the air transport industry rose to Sh350.9 billion in 2024 from Sh319.8 billion.
