The Food & Farm for Health Project White Paper examines how structural gaps in global air cargo capacity allocation limit both healthcare access and economic development across Sub-Saharan Africa. Although the region is home to 1.6 billion people, it receives only 2% of global air cargo availability—a mismatch that restricts access to essential medicines and constrains high-value agricultural exports.

Read the White Paper here

Developed by Pharma.Aero and TIACA, the study combines ten-year traffic data, healthcare demand analysis, industry interviews, and economic modelling to demonstrate how optimized, bidirectional air cargo flows could deliver measurable impact for industry, governments, and communities.

Air Cargo Capacity Gaps: A Structural Constraint

Despite rapid population growth and increasing healthcare needs, Sub-Saharan Africa has not benefited from proportional increases in air cargo infrastructure or scheduled capacity. This imbalance affects both import-driven health supply chains and export-driven agricultural sectors.

The analysis highlights:

• Underdeveloped cold chain facilities in key hubs

• Limited frequency of wide-body operations

• Fragmented intra-African connectivity

• High reliance on indirect routings

These constraints contribute to longer lead times, lower reliability, and higher costs for life-saving medical products.

Impact on Healthcare Access

Reduced capacity directly impacts vaccine and medicine availability, particularly in remote or underserved regions. Temperature-controlled shipments require predictable, high-quality transport environments, which remain inconsistent across many African gateways.

Improved network design, quality certification, and visibility technologies would support:

• Shorter delivery timelines

• Enhanced product integrity

• Greater resilience during epidemics and supply chain disruptions

Bidirectional Growth Opportunities

The study demonstrates that optimizing capacity on both import and export legs can significantly improve economic sustainability for airlines and logistics providers. Bidirectional flows reduce empty legs, stabilize yields, and enable affordable access to pharmaceuticals across the region.

Opportunities include:

• Building dedicated pharma lanes

• Strengthening regional hubs

• Integrating multimodal corridors

• Aligning trade, health, and logistics policies

Africa’s growing supply of high-value perishables—fresh fruit, vegetables, seafood, and floriculture—represents a major opportunity for outbound capacity development. Enhanced airfreight connectivity could increase export revenues, support rural livelihoods, and create new incentives for airlines to scale operations in the region.

Policy & Infrastructure Recommendations

The white paper outlines a series of recommendations for governments, industry, and global health actors.

Download the White Paper here

The more detailed, in-depth Technical Report of this project is available for Pharma.Aero members only, in the Member Area of the website, here.

Not yet a member? Learn more about memberships and benefits.

The Food & Farm for Health is a joint project of Pharma.Aero & The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA), in collaboration with HLA – The Humanitarian Logistics Association, CCA – The Cool Chain Association (CCA), and Fairmiles.