With East African carriers offering flights from their bases to destinations not served directly from South Africa, there is potential for the region to become an important hub connecting passengers to other parts of Africa as well as Europe and Asia. 

Chantal Phillips of Ethiopian Airlines, says East Africa is emerging as an aviation hub because of excellent connections and its geographical location. Ethiopian Airlines’ network is designed to have “immediate connection from South Africa to Middle East, Asia, Europe, North and South America,” she says. 

Richard Bodin, fastjet’s Chief Commercial Officer, says East Africa has yet to become such a hub for South African travellers but that the connectivity regionally is definitely growing in routes and frequency. “That can only be a positive for East Africa’s future potential growth as an aviation hub for travellers further afield.”
Bodin says: “Key to this potential growth is government support. We make no secret of the fact that the Tanzanian government’s support allowed us to establish our first African base in Dar es Salaam, kick-starting our vision of democratising air travel across the continent by making it more affordable to more people to fly to more destinations, more often.” 
Kenya Airways declined to comment on the effect of the new visa regulations on its operations.  The regulations will affect not only on its direct flights between South Africa and Kenya but onward connections too, as the new visa fees and process also apply to transit passengers. 
Chantal says it is difficult to determine whether more travellers will currently choose Ethiopia over Kenya as a transit point as a result of Kenya’s visa action, and that this will become apparent in time.

Juan Nel, Marketing Manager for Africa Stay, believes high fares are a hindrance for the region. “Because of the limited number of airlines flying to the region, competition is low and so flight costs tend to be expensive, especially when comparing [them] to flights to other destinations such as Europe and the Far East. Most of the time it’s because of high taxes,” he says.