Ionic Insights: The Business Jet Fleet in East Africa
Welcome to the latest edition of Ionic Insights!
In advance of next week’s Aviation Africa Summit & Exhibition in Kigali, this, the latest in our series of detailed market insights, focusses on the size and scope of the installed business jet fleet in East Africa, more specifically the nations making up the East African Community.
We analyse the size, composition and age of the installed fleet, whilst simultaneously investigating the most popular OEMs and aircraft types.
Background
The East African Community (‘EAC’) is a regional organisation consisting of eight partner countries including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Home to over 330 million citizens, with a total land mass of over five million square kilometres and a combined GDP exceeding $300 billion the EAC was formed to deepen ties amongst member states. The principal areas of co-operation include: formation of a customs union, a common market, and ultimately political and monetary union.
Fleet
As it stands, the countries of the EAC have a small, combined business jet fleet of only 23 aircraft. This fleet pales in comparison to the fleets of Africa’s largest markets including South Africa (129 aircraft) and Nigeria (92).
Kenya is home to over half of all aircraft (13), whilst Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan have no business jet aircraft whatsover.
Midsize/Super-midsize aircraft models dominate, whilst Textron (Cessna/Hawker-Beechcraft) is the largest OEM by fleet size — the Citation Bravo and Sovereign models being particularly popular.
The fleet has an average age of over 27 years - almost twice that of the fleet in China (see our recent analysis).
Market Outlook
Despite past predictions and the ambitious, long-term potential of the EAC, significant fleet growth in countries other than Kenya is likely to be limited — with demand unlikely to extend beyond the light turboprops and helicopters which at present dominate the tourism sectors in countries including Tanzania and Uganda.
Ongoing infrastructure challenges, including pilot and engineer shortages; scarcity of fixed-base operators (FBOs), aircraft management companies and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services; regulatory concerns; complex permit regimes; inadequate airport infrastructure; and inflated ground handling and fuel costs, taxes, landing fees and navigation charges will continue to impact upon growth.
Finally, geopolitical, jurisdictional, operational, compliance and security risks, such as those resulting from conflict and opaque credit histories will unfortunately continue to impact upon the access to aircraft finance, thereby hampering significant fleet expansion in the region.
Source: AMSTAT, August 2025.