BURKINA FASO’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE

**Table 7. Benchmarking air transport indicators for Burkina Faso and selected other countries**

|**Country**|**Burkina**<br>**Faso**|Côte<br>d’Ivoire|Ghana|Mali|Nigeria|Senegal|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Traffic (2007)**|||||||
|Domestic seats (‘000 seats per year)|**20.3**|n.a.|144.2|n.a.|1,199.6|130.0|
|Seats for international travel within Africa (‘000 seats per year)|**244.7**|851.0|909,8|564.5|1,373.8|1,260.0|
|Seats for intercontinental travel (‘000 seats per year)|**147.1**|297.1|832.1|165.1|2,437.7|1,230.0|
|Seats available per capita|**0.03**|0.06|0.08|0.06|0.09|0.23|
|Herfindahl<sup>-</sup>Hirschmann Index—air transport market (%)|**22.89**|9.75|6.28|11.75|11.28|11.64|
|**Quality**|||||||
|Percent of seat-km in newer aircraft|**93.4**|90.9|96.8|95.6|71.42||
|Percent of carriers passing IATA/IOSA audit|**0**|0|0|0|28.6|50.0|
|FAA/IASA audit status|**No audit**|Fail|**Fail**|No Audit|No audit|Audit<br>(as of<br>2007)|

_Source:_ Bofinger 2009. Derived from the AICD national database (www.infrastructureafrica.org/aicd/tools/data). _Note:_ Herfindhal-Hirschmann Index (HHI) is a commonly accepted measure of market concentration. It is calculated by squaring the market share of each firm competing in the market and then summing the resulting numbers. A HHI of 100 indicates the market is a monopoly, while lower the HHI, the more diluted the market power exerted by one company/agent.

All data as of 2007 are based on estimations and computations of scheduled advertised seats, as published by the Seabury Aviation Data Group. This captures 98 percent of worldwide traffic, but a high percentage of African traffic is not captured by these data. FAA = U.S. Federal Aviation Administration; IASA = International Aviation Safety Assessment; IATA = International Air Transport Association; IOSA = IATA International Safety Audit.

n.a. = Not applicable.

Across the region, there has been a tendency for aircraft fleets to be renewed and scaled down in size to facilitate the consolidation of routes toward a hub-and spoke-system. The aircraft fleet serving Burkina Faso has been renewed rapidly in recent years, with the share of recently manufactured aircraft rising from 73 percent in 2004 to 93 percent in 2007, positioning Burkina Faso in the average range for the region (table 7).

Burkina Faso has a very active airline. Air Burkina was found in 1960s and later became part of Air Afrique. When Air Afrique collapsed in 2001, the Government of Burkina Faso privatized Air Burkina. The airline is now partially owned by the Aga Khan fund. Air Burkina passed IATA safety audit, is allowed to serve Europe, and flies both to Paris Orly and Marseille. Regular African destinations include Benin, Code d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo; and works in code share with Air Mali.

# **Challenges**

The domestic market is barely developed and therefore very thin. In terms of seats per capita—with only one domestic route available as of 2007 and served by a single carrier—Burkina has the second-smallest domestic market in Sub-Saharan Africa, after Mali and Côte d’Ivoire. Furthermore, air transport activity is stagnant and likely affected by the collapse of regional carriers in the early 2000s (figure 11).

20