Morocco dominates business aviation sector - Ionic

With a population of 37 million and GDP totalling $145 billion, Morocco dominates the business jet fleet in North Africa; nearly fifty percent of all aircraft are based there.

Egypt, with a population in excess of 100 million, North Africa’s largest economy (2024 estimate: $395 billion) and the continent’s twelfth largest land mass, is second, with a total of sixteen aircraft. This fleet is comparatively young, though, with an average age of only fifteen years. 

The smallest fleets are in Tunisia and Algeria (Africa’s largest country by land mass) with only three and five aircraft respectively. Tunisia’s modest fleet has the highest average age of 30 years.

Midsize/Super-midsize jets dominate and make up approximately four out of every ten aircraft across the region. Textron/Cessna is the largest OEM by fleet size (alone making up over forty-five percent of the installed fleet); with the Citation XLS/XLS+, Sovereign and Mustang being the most popular models.

Opportunities for Financing

North Africa remains a challenging region in which to finance business aircraft. 

Aged fleets, security considerations, political nepotism, poor corruption perception rankings, and the limited availability of wholly independent, third-party aircraft management companies mean that the willingness of international asset-based lenders to lend into the region remains limited but not unheard of. 

Saying that, though, UHNW buyers, with substantive international footprints, are able to access finance via existing or new private wealth relationships with a number of predominantly European banks. 

*Ionic Aviation is a London-based arranger of finance, leasing and technical solutions for the buyers, owners and investors in business aircraft, commercial aircraft and helicopters.