COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2018
39
In general, more populous countries tend to have higher air passenger traffic. In addition, the
income level, geographical position and the availability of alternative transport modes affect the
level of air passenger traffic in that country. For example, higher per capita income countries are
more likely to have higher per capita air passenger traffic. Similarly, it is possible to observe that
island countries where surface transport linkages are quite limited have higher per capita air
passenger traffic figures. To analyse the linkage between population and air passenger
movements for the OIC Member States, the air passenger movements of the member states were
normalized with their populations. In this regard, Table 14 presenting the ratios of air
passengers carried to the populations of each member state has several implications. Firstly, in
parallel to the theory, the high income gulf countries such as Qatar, UAE, and Bahrain and island
states like Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia have higher per capita air passenger traffic figures.
Secondly, the OIC countries with dominant network airlines are more likely to experience higher
per capita air passenger traffic. Thanks to their well-established hub-and-spoke system, large
network airlines such as Turkish Airlines and Emirates can achieve higher economies of scale
and thus enjoy higher per capita air passenger traffic.
Table 14: Per capita air passengers carried at the OIC Member States (2016)
MENA Sub-Saharan Africa Asia
Qatar 12,145 Mauritania 0,065 Maldives 3,377
UAE 9,942 Togo 0,062 Brunei Darussalam 2,761
Bahrain 3,663 Gabon 0,039 Malaysia 1,726
Oman 1,727 Nigeria 0,024 Suriname 0,480
Turkey 1,262 Mozambique 0,022 Indonesia 0,370
Saudi Arabia 1,069 Gambia, The 0,022 Kazakhstan 0,281
Kuwait 0,988 Cote d'Ivoire 0,018 Turkmenistan 0,233
Lebanon 0,441 Cameroon 0,015 Azerbaijan 0,201
Jordan 0,336 Burkina Faso 0,008 Tajikistan 0,119
Tunisia 0,316 Sudan 0,007 Kyrgyz Republic 0,096
Morocco 0,219 Uganda 0,001 Uzbekistan 0,075
Libya 0,204 Niger 0,001 Afghanistan 0,055
Iran 0,193 Senegal 0,001 Pakistan 0,050
Algeria 0,150 Bangladesh 0,023
Egypt 0,130
Yemen 0,030
Iraq 0,013
Albania 0,009
Source: Author from the World Bank World Development Indicators
Figure 18 shows the changes in the air freight traffic among the OIC regions between 1993 and
2017. One implication of Figure 18 is that air freight traffic in the OIC-Sub-Saharan Africa has
been quite premature and fell well below the other regions during this period. It is also
noteworthy that there is an exponential growth of air freight traffic in the OIC-MENA region
since 1993.