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Abstract
Over the last decade, SSA nations have undergone unequivocal development in air
transportation. This development has been exemplified by a 45 percent rate in passenger
traffic which is comparable to that of the United States during the same period. This
paper assesses the development of air transportation and its role in the transportation
system in twenty five SSA countries from 1990 through 2006. The paper uses the
number and quality of airports in 2006 and the1990-2004 progress in air transport
performance as represented by the number of passengers and quantity of cargo handled
by air ports and transported by air carriers and the number of aircraft departure. Based on
the examination of these factors three groups of countries in SSA have been identified:
countries with high growth rates, low growth rates, and negative growth rates in air
transportation. The overall division of countries into these groups was based on the
average growth rate in the performance factors (i.e., number of passengers, quantity of
freight and aircraft departure). Eight countries have been classified into either high
growth rate, low growth rate, or negative growth rate consistently in all of the factors.
Noting that the relationship between air craft departure and air cargo is statistically
insignificant, regression results indicate that in the twenty five countries of interest, an
average increase of 141 passengers and 8,000 tons per kilometer result in an increase of
one aircraft departure.