Africa is on the verge of an aviation boom — and the window to shape it is now. Boeing projects 6% annual passenger growth through 2044, with more than 1,200 new aircraft deliveries needed across the continent over the next two decades. A young, rapidly urbanizing population, an expanding middle class, and the African Continental Free Trade Area are together driving demand for air connectivity that simply did not exist a generation ago. 

Yet direct air services between the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa remain strikingly limited relative to the scale of the bilateral economic relationship — and that gap has a real commercial cost. Expanding the U.S.-Africa aviation corridor is not simply a transportation question; it is a trade and investment imperative. Every new route between the two regions means more commerce, more tourism, more capital flows, and deeper ties across every sector of the U.S.-Africa partnership. The case for open skies is, at its core, the case for open markets. 

Realizing that potential requires progress on two mutually reinforcing fronts: building out the regional network that connects Africa's 54 markets to each other and to the world, and developing the financial architecture that enables African carriers to acquire the right aircraft at sustainable cost. This panel brings together aircraft manufacturers, financiers, development finance institutions, and airline operators to make the case — and chart the path — for a stronger, more connected U.S.-Africa aviation partnership.