By: Oluwaseye Ogunsanya
Claim
A social media page on X made a list of Africa’s largest airlines, ranking them by fleet size.
Verdict
Misleading. Available information showed that the claim lacks accuracy.
Full Text
Africa Facts Zone, a popular SM account, ranks the largest airlines by fleet size across Africa in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The page, which prides itself as a platform for facts, ranked Ethiopian Airlines with 154 planes as the largest airline in Africa by fleet size. It was followed by EgyptAir, 73 planes; Air Algerie, 53 planes; Royal Air Maroc, 50 planes; Air Peace, 44 planes and Kenya Airways, 33 planes as well as Tunisair, 29 planes.
FactCheckAfrica decided to investigate this claim because of its potential to misinform.
Verification
FactCheckAfrica conducted a keyword search and found a recent report by Business Insider Africa which presented 5 largest airlines in Africa by fleet size in 2024.
A Fleet refers to the collection of aircraft owned or operated by an airline or aviation company.
Quoting Planespotter, a civil aviation database, the report noted that Ethiopian Airlines is Africa’s largest airline with a fleet of 135 aircraft, followed by Egypt Air – 71, Air Algerie – 55, Royal Air Maroc – 50 and Kenya Airways – 34. Air Peace and Tunisair have 30 and 19 fleets respectively. The same information was corroborated by Biznakenya.
Also, we checked the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) 2023 annual report and it ranked Ethiopian Airlines as the largest airline with 129 fleets, followed by Egypt Air – 69, Air Algerie – 58, Royal Air Maroc – 50, Kenya Airways – 32 while Safair and Air Peace have 30 and 20 fleets respectively.
Conclusion
Therefore, the claim is misleading in terms of ranking and the fleet sizes of the identified airlines.
