African airlines are set to see a slight improvement in their financial performances in 2022 from 2021, as countries continue to vaccinate their populations and open up their economies.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), African carriers will recover from a 1.9 billion U.S. dollar loss in 2021 to a 1.5 billion in 2022.

IATA has attributed this slow pace of recovery in the industry to low vaccination rates across the continent. The body says the projected improvement is built on the expectation of some recovery in intra-Africa travel and travel to some tourist destinations with relatively higher vaccination rates.

While Africa has seen a recent rise in vaccine arrivals, most countries struggled to obtain the vital jabs in the period leading to July, leaving the continent vulnerable to reeling from the pandemic effects for longer.

Like most regions globally, Africa's aviation sector took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, as countries shut their borders and imposed strict travel restrictions in efforts to curb spread of the virus.