(Business in Cameroon) - In 2020, passenger traffic dropped by 61.8% year on year in Cameroon, according to figures from the Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority (CCAA).

In the “2019-2020 statistics bulletin” it recently published, the CCAA explained that this drop was due to the border closure decided by Cameroon (as almost all countries did worldwide) to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

From 1,512,735 in 2019, the number of direct passengers transported dropped to 577,881 in 2020. Also, during the period under review, the number of aircraft movements (departures and arrivals) recorded a 49.6% year-on-year drop, going from 39,580 movements in 2019 to 19,966 in 2020.

Also, the ton of airfreight followed the same downtrend going from 24,350 tons in 2019 to 18,956 tons (a 22.2% drop).

The CCAA indicates that if not for the coronavirus pandemic, that started in March 2020, the outlooks were positive for the coming years given the previous results.

To compute its air traffic figures, the CCAA collects data on the number of direct passengers (embarked and disembarked) and the number of transit passengers. To guarantee coherence and comprehensiveness, the CCAA data is harmonized with those provided by the remaining players in the sector: the airport operator ADC SA and the Agency for Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar.

Sylvain Andzongo