When passengers complain about the rising cost of air travel in Ghana and across West Africa, the immediate assumption is often that airlines are making supernormal profits from every ticket sold. But new industry data and expert analysis are painting a very different picture, one in which the entire global airline business sometimes earns less per passenger than the price of a bottle of Malta Guinness.
That striking comparison has been made by aviation expert and Managing Partner of AviationGhana, Dr. Dominic Andoh who says the reality of airline profitability is far removed from public perception. In a detailed interview, he explained that the margins airlines operate with are so thin that they can be simplified into everyday consumer terms for better understanding.
“In fact, the whole world, airline margin, when I say airline margin, the profit they make at the end of the year is equivalent to one Malta Guinness bottle per passenger,” he said. “So when they fly from here to Nigeria, the profit they make from it is just one Malta Guinness bottle. Airline margins are very small. The whole year’s profit is about 5% or 6%.” He added.
His analogy, referencing the price of a Malta Guinness bottle, has become a vivid way of illustrating an industry that moves millions of passengers globally but retains very little profit per traveller.
This perspective is reinforced by data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which projects that African airlines in particular will continue to operate on extremely low margins in 2025. According to the industry body, “IATA expects African carriers to achieve a USD0.2 billion profit in 2025, with a net USD1.00 profit per passenger.”
In practical terms, this means that after covering fuel, maintenance, airport charges, navigation fees, staff costs, security expenses and taxes across multiple jurisdictions, an airline is left with roughly one dollar in profit per passenger carried. In some cases, that figure is even lower when operational disruptions or currency pressures are factored in.
For Ghana and the wider West African region, this reality sits at the centre of a broader debate on why airfares remain high despite the perception of airline profitability. Dr. Andoh explains that the structure of aviation costs in the sub-region is a major driver of ticket prices, not airline greed.
“The tax is sometimes between 35 and 40 percent of the ticket,” he noted, adding that multiple charges such as airport passenger service fees, infrastructure levies, landing charges, parking fees and fuel surcharges all accumulate before an airline even adds its small operational margin.
He illustrated this with a real route example. “I was flying from Ghana to Senegal. The total ticket value was about $11,500. Taxes alone were about $5,500 between here and Senegal,” he said.
This layering of costs, he argues, is what creates the impression of expensive air travel in West Africa. Unlike regions such as Europe, where aviation taxes are more harmonised and relatively lower between countries, West Africa operates a fragmented system where each country imposes its own charges independently.
“The biggest aviation markets in West Africa are Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and Abidjan. All these countries, we charge what we like,” he said.
This structure implies that airlines are not the primary beneficiaries of high ticket prices. Instead, a significant portion of what passengers pay is absorbed by government taxes and regulatory fees.
Even more striking is the global comparison. Dr. Andoh noted that flying between European cities such as Paris, Brussels and Vienna can cost a fraction of what it takes to move between West African capitals, despite similar flight durations.
Yet even in such high-cost environments, airlines remain financially fragile. Many operate at break-even levels, while several national carriers in Africa have historically struggled with losses. Industry examples frequently cited include South African Airways and Kenya Airways, both of which have undergone repeated restructuring due to financial distress. Ethiopian Airlines remains one of the few consistently profitable carriers on the continent.
The broader picture emerging from both expert commentary and international data is that aviation is structurally a low-margin industry worldwide. While banks, telecom companies and other sectors may post significantly higher returns, airlines operate in an environment where profitability is constantly eroded by external costs beyond their control.
A comparative look at Ghana’s banking sector, however, reveals a stark contrast in profitability dynamics, a point raised during discussions on the story. A review of financial performance data for 2024 and 2025 shows that while airlines are operating on margins as low as one US dollar per passenger, banks in Ghana are recording significantly stronger returns. GCB Bank, for instance, posted a 67.4 percent increase in profit before tax in 2025, reaching 3.17 billion cedis, with return on equity climbing to 39 percent. Ecobank Ghana recorded steady growth with profits exceeding 1.8 billion cedis in 2025 and an ROE of about 38 percent in the previous year, while CalBank rebounded strongly from previous losses to record double-digit profit growth and an ROE of over 32 percent. Collectively, the banking sector in Ghana recorded about 43.5 percent profit growth in 2025, driven largely by expanded lending activity, trading income and diversified revenue streams. This contrast underscores the editor’s point that while airlines operate in a structurally constrained, low-margin environment, banks are functioning in a far more profitable financial ecosystem, a comparison that further deepens public understanding of why aviation, despite high ticket prices, yields minimal returns per passenger.
Dr. Andoh emphasises that even when airlines appear expensive to passengers, their internal financial reality tells a different story. “The profit they make is very small. About 5% or 6% per annum,” he said.
The “one dollar per passenger” figure, therefore, is not just a statistical curiosity. It is a window into an industry where billions circulate but individual returns remain minimal. It also challenges the public perception that airlines are driving high ticket prices purely for profit.
Instead, the evidence suggests a more complex system where taxation, operational costs and regional policy fragmentation play a far greater role in determining what passengers ultimately pay.
For Ghana, this raises a deeper economic question. If airlines are making only marginal profits per passenger, then the debate around airfares may need to shift away from airline pricing alone and toward the broader architecture of aviation taxation and regional coordination.
Until that conversation matures, the cost of flying will continue to reflect not just the price of a ticket, but a web of charges that leaves airlines earning what Dr. Andoh describes, in simple terms, as no more than “one bottle of Malta Guinness per passenger.”
