https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2 ... y-persist/

I think one of our fellow posters was interviewed...

AF022 wrote:

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/06/11/why-poor-air-connectivity-in-africa-may-persist/

I think one of our fellow posters was interviewed...

Indeed B747437B aka Sean Mendis was the interviewee......his insights are always eye opening!

AF022 wrote:

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/06/11/why-poor-air-connectivity-in-africa-may-persist/

I think one of our fellow posters was interviewed...

Haha. You think correct.

Very good articles about the history of Air Afrique made by Jeune Afrique. It is not every day that we find this kind of articles on African aviation, especially written mainly by Africans themselves. There are a few groups or pages on Facebook (Royal Air Maroc, Algerian Spotters, Ethiopian Airlines vision 2025, Aeroforum DR Congo, ...).

The first 3 articles and the last one are available without subscription. For the others, we will have to wait a bit.

For info, the chief pilot of RwandAir (captain on A330) is a former Air Afrique pilot qualified on A300 and A310. He then worked for Air Ivoire and Jet Airways before to start to work for RwandAir, almost 10 years ago.

Enjoy

[Series] Once upon a time Air Afrique

How did Air Afrique come about? Why did she go bankrupt? What has become of its lines, its employees, its managers? Could she be reborn? Jeune Afrique conducted the investigation. https://translate.google.com/translate? ... r-afrique/


Air Afrique, a pan-African dream (1/6)

“Once upon a time, Air Afrique” (1/6). Pool the means to provide young African nations with air links between themselves and internationally. On March 28, 1961, in Yaoundé, eleven countries lay the groundwork for their common company. https://translate.google.com/translate? ... icain-1-6/

Air Afrique: these African pilots pioneering international skies (2/6)

“Once upon a time, Air Afrique” (2/6). Ajavon, Moussa, Tépé ... If African captains piloted Air Afrique aircraft in the 1960s, it was not until 1998 that a woman, the Congolese Adine Ossebi, took up the post. https://translate.google.com/translate? ... andes-2-6/

Air Afrique at the time of its splendor: when the Pope boarded (3/6)

“Once upon a time, Air Afrique” (3/6). When John Paul II or actress Ursula Andress took his planes, Air Afrique felt its wings grow. Jeune Afrique looks back on the heyday of the company. https://translate.google.com/translate? ... -bord-3-6/

Who killed Air Afrique? (4/6)

"Once upon a time, Air Afrique" (4/6). In addition to the lack of resources, sometimes erratic management and the lack of common political will, the devaluation of the CFA franc in January 1994 played an undeniable role in the downfall of the Pan-African flag. https://translate.google.com/translate? ... rique-4-6/

Ivory Coast, Senegal, Congo ... Former Air Afrique alumni, where are they now? (5/6)

“Once upon a time, Air Afrique” 5/6. Retirement for some, a great career for others, hardship for many. From Yves Roland-Billecart to Marcel Kodjo, including the 4,000 or so employees employed during the bankruptcy, where are the protagonists twenty years later? https://translate.google.com/translate? ... venus-5-6/


Is a new Air Afrique possible? (6/6)

"Once upon a time, Air Afrique" (6/6). In a sector shaken up by the pandemic, cooperation seems more than ever the solution of the future. But will it take a pan-African form? https://translate.google.com/translate? ... sible-6-6/

[Testimony] "Air Afrique has been my family"

In thirty-one years at Air Afrique, Yacouba N’Diaye has traveled through Bangui, Libreville, Dakar, Abidjan and has climbed all the ranks of the company. For Jeune Afrique, he looks back on the adventure of a lifetime. https://translate.google.com/translate? ... a-famille/

After Air Afrique’s death, orphan air links

The bankruptcy of the pan-African company in 2002 put more than 80 lines on the spot. While some have been taken over, around thirty, such as Conakry-Monrovia, Abidjan-Zurich or Kinshasa-Cotonou, have disappeared. https://translate.google.com/translate? ... rphelines/

Air Peace has just received the third of the 13 Embraer 195 aircraft ordered a few years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igj4GrkO98U

Qatar has increased frequencies to Lagos to double daily as of 1st of July. Looks like they are really taking advantage of the fact EK is still banned from flying to Nigeria.

https://www.africa.com/qatar-airways-to ... -to-lagos/

louA340 wrote:

Qatar has increased frequencies to Lagos to double daily as of 1st of July. Looks like they are really taking advantage of the fact EK is still banned from flying to Nigeria.

https://www.africa.com/qatar-airways-to ... -to-lagos/

For how long EK has been banned?
Good news for QR as Nigeria must represent the 2nd or 3rd best market in Africa.

eastafspot wrote:

louA340 wrote:

Qatar has increased frequencies to Lagos to double daily as of 1st of July. Looks like they are really taking advantage of the fact EK is still banned from flying to Nigeria.

https://www.africa.com/qatar-airways-to ... -to-lagos/

For how long EK has been banned?
Good news for QR as Nigeria must represent the 2nd or 3rd best market in Africa.

Flights between Nigeria and UAE haven't been allowed since February this year. This is due to disagreements between UAE and Nigeria on the covid protocols and restrictions imposed on Nigerians traveling to the UAE.
Recently it was announced that flights would resume at the end of June only for it to be reversed a few days later.

https://www.proshareng.com/news/Travel% ... -Guy/57844

louA340 wrote:

Flights between Nigeria and UAE haven't been allowed since February this year. This is due to disagreements between UAE and Nigeria on the covid protocols and restrictions imposed on Nigerians traveling to the UAE.
Recently it was announced that flights would resume at the end of June only for it to be reversed a few days later.

https://www.proshareng.com/news/Travel% ... -Guy/57844

Was another date/month proposed?
ET must also enjoy this deadlock situation.

The Antonov 225 Mriya is currently on the way to Accra. This would be the first time it's making a visit there.

ADB5766 from Leipzig to Accra https://fr24.com/ADB5766/2850ec1d

It appears that ASKY is entering some new routes? If i check flightradar24 I see departures nonstop from Kinshasa to Cotonou nonstop, this is new no?

eastafspot wrote:

ET must also enjoy this deadlock situation.

All passengers are banned from entering the UAE if they have been in Nigeria within the preceding 14 days, so nobody is really benefitting with regards to UAE-Nigeria traffic.

AF022 wrote:

It appears that ASKY is entering some new routes? If i check flightradar24 I see departures nonstop from Kinshasa to Cotonou nonstop, this is new no?

yes this is new...3 weekly LFW COO FIH + 4 weekly regular LFW BZV FIH

Air Senegal has confirmed that it shall be launching new 4 weekly flights to Freetown (FNA) via Banjul effective 02Aug using an A319.

Flights will be operated on Mon Wed Fri Sat offering good connections via DSS in both directions to CDG CMN MXP BCN CMN JFK IAD MRS and LYS.

HC has 5th freedom traffic rights on BJL-FNA-BJL which was a market size of 32,000 pax round trip in 2019. Currently, ASK operates that route 4 times per week as well i.e. BJL FNA ACC LFW

Does anyone know if all those DC-8s, DC-9s, 707s, 727s, F100s, etc are still stored at FIH and if they've been cleaned up yet? If FIH plans to expand in the future, then those abandoned planes might be an issue.

From instagram it seems that ASKY will start flights to Malabo (SSG) starting 23aug.

Green Africa has finally received its AOC from the Nigerian authorities and is scheduled to begin commercial flight operations on 12-August-2021.

https://www.thecable.ng/green-africa-re ... n-thursday

Green Africa operates inaugural LOS-ABV service, launches commercial operations

https://thewillnigeria.com/news/green-a ... ja-flight/

Nigerian government to concession top 4 international airports

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/hea ... -sack.html

Air Peace undertakes route expansion:

Lagos- Douala, Port Harcourt- Douala, Lagos-Gombe, Abuja-Gombe, Abuja-Ibadan added;
Banjul, Freetown, Dakar and Accra restored to network

https://www.google.com/amp/s/punchng.co ... dan/%3famp

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thenationo ... gombe/amp/

Aerojet begins process of establishing MRO and Aviation Training Facility at Kotoka Airport

https://www.pulse.com.gh/business/estab ... eo/4cgxxj7

Ghana trains 20 civil and military air accident investigators

https://mobile.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePa ... on-1319917

Air Senegal commences Freetown, Banjul

https://globaltimes-sl.com/en/2021/08/0 ... perations/

I'm curious about Air Peace to Douala. If flight operates Lagos-PHC-Douala and reverse, where do Douala-Lagos passengers go through customs?

AF022 wrote:

I'm curious about Air Peace to Douala. If flight operates Lagos-PHC-Douala and reverse, where do Douala-Lagos passengers go through customs?

Lagos

Green Africa seems to be flying into turbulent skies already just two weeks after starting revenue operations.


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/08/gre ... nt-equity/

For the Nigeria-watchers: any idea why Enugu is still closed for international operations? The refurbishments were supposed to be finished a while ago...

Air Senegal started JFK-BWI flights this week. Do we know anything about loads? I would assume first flight full of dignitaries. But the subsequent flights?

Just visited Accra on KLM and my 777-300ER was full on outbound flight but not inbound segment. Looks like travel has rebounded quite well to Accra which is nice. Delta and BA now running daily non-stop service. I also see both Brussels Airlines and Air France are operating daily triangular service to Brussels and Paris hubs with a stop in either Lome or Ouagadougou. Does anyone know how many passengers Accra contributes to these routes? I am very curious to find out. When booking my ticket, I had the option of using Air France on one leg, but wasn't so sure I wanted the stopover in Ouagadougou so I chose KLM in both directions.

I will say though, that it is absolutely insane for Ghana Airports Company to allow several major airlines with widebodies to depart within an hour and half of each other. The late evening rush is ridiculous.

KLM - 777-300ER - 408 pax
British Airways - A350-1000 - 331 pax
Delta - 767-300ER / A330-200 - 226/234 pax
United - 787-8 243 pax

Brussels Airlines - A330-300 295 pax but not all O/D TO ACC
Air France - A330-200 224 pax but not all O/D to ACC

One has to plan for max direct flight capacity and let's say 50% of triangular route capacity. That would total 1,500 passengers arriving at the airport for departure during busy periods.

It creates an awful lot of traffic getting to the airport, and even passenger drop-off is a challenge.
Check-in queues are ridiculously long, and tiring.
Immigration and security queues also slow moving.

Invariably, quite a few of these flights never leave on time, but usually they can make it up when wind direction is working with travel route.
It does make for a very stressful departure out of Accra which no airline can control.

Since the 1980's ACC has always had the evening rush hour. LOS very similar.

bealinehx wrote:

Since the 1980's ACC has always had the evening rush hour. LOS very similar.

Yes, I will grant you that. Most hubs in Europe/North America require night time departures from West Africa to connect onward, but I remember distinctly that ACC did not have United, Delta or Air France back then.
You could substitute Brussels Airlines for Lufthansa/Swiss because neither of them were daily.

Ghana Airways had mostly day time departures to UK and Germany but US flights were 3 weekly at night IIRC.

I think Virgin Atlantic with their morning morning departure from Lagos to London is on to something here. Ethiopian Airlines, Emirates, EgyptAir all head east out of Accra and fly out earlier to connect to banked flights in their own hubs so no direct comparison there either. Their passengers though, must have an easier go of it at the airport.

Anyone with experiences to share departing Accra prior to 7pm?

Travel market across Africa has grown substantially since the 80s, but there doesn't seem to be any strong competition in West Africa so we all rely on European/North American carriers who need to leave at night to make connecting across banked flights out of their hubs possible. That seems to be the real problem. No point building capacity for 6 heavies departing at roughly the same time if most of that capacity is underutilized the remaining 21 hours a day.

Air Peace has just taken delivery of a 4th E2, tail 5N-BYI

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUH_pl5shJH ... =copy_link

The delivery flight was from Embraer's Sao Jose did Santos Airport to Recife 22/9/21.

Check out playback of flight P47881 from Sao Jose dos Campos to Recife on Flightradar24.

https://fr24.com/data/flights/p47881#293e9299

Today 23/9/21 the aircraft flew direct from Recife Airport to Abuja.

Check out playback of flight P47881 from Recife to Abuja on Flightradar24. https://fr24.com/data/flights/p47881#294006dd

As of Oct 9 international operations have resumed at ENU, with Ethiopian making a triangular route with Cotonou, ADD-COO-ENU-ADD. Flights were supposed to start Oct 1 but were delayed reportedly due to tensions in southeastern Nigeria. This brings ET back up to its pre-COVID four Nigerian destinations.

slowrambler wrote:

For the Nigeria-watchers: any idea why Enugu is still closed for international operations? The refurbishments were supposed to be finished a while ago...

ghdc10 wrote:

bealinehx wrote:

Since the 1980's ACC has always had the evening rush hour. LOS very similar.

Yes, I will grant you that. Most hubs in Europe/North America require night time departures from West Africa to connect onward, but I remember distinctly that ACC did not have United, Delta or Air France back then.
You could substitute Brussels Airlines for Lufthansa/Swiss because neither of them were daily.

Ghana Airways had mostly day time departures to UK and Germany but US flights were 3 weekly at night IIRC.

I think Virgin Atlantic with their morning morning departure from Lagos to London is on to something here. Ethiopian Airlines, Emirates, EgyptAir all head east out of Accra and fly out earlier to connect to banked flights in their own hubs so no direct comparison there either. Their passengers though, must have an easier go of it at the airport.

Anyone with experiences to share departing Accra prior to 7pm?

Travel market across Africa has grown substantially since the 80s, but there doesn't seem to be any strong competition in West Africa so we all rely on European/North American carriers who need to leave at night to make connecting across banked flights out of their hubs possible. That seems to be the real problem. No point building capacity for 6 heavies departing at roughly the same time if most of that capacity is underutilized the remaining 21 hours a day.

GH flights to LHR where overnight left at 23:59 apart from flight GH770 which left Sunday morning and returned back on Monday 04:00. During peak time they did have a 2nd Sunday flight leaving ACC at 23:59 as flight GH773.
Only other widebody they had leaving in the day was when they operated triangle flight ACC-BEY-DXB-ACC

soups wrote:

ghdc10 wrote:

bealinehx wrote:

Since the 1980's ACC has always had the evening rush hour. LOS very similar.

Yes, I will grant you that. Most hubs in Europe/North America require night time departures from West Africa to connect onward, but I remember distinctly that ACC did not have United, Delta or Air France back then.
You could substitute Brussels Airlines for Lufthansa/Swiss because neither of them were daily.

Ghana Airways had mostly day time departures to UK and Germany but US flights were 3 weekly at night IIRC.

I think Virgin Atlantic with their morning morning departure from Lagos to London is on to something here. Ethiopian Airlines, Emirates, EgyptAir all head east out of Accra and fly out earlier to connect to banked flights in their own hubs so no direct comparison there either. Their passengers though, must have an easier go of it at the airport.

Anyone with experiences to share departing Accra prior to 7pm?

Travel market across Africa has grown substantially since the 80s, but there doesn't seem to be any strong competition in West Africa so we all rely on European/North American carriers who need to leave at night to make connecting across banked flights out of their hubs possible. That seems to be the real problem. No point building capacity for 6 heavies departing at roughly the same time if most of that capacity is underutilized the remaining 21 hours a day.

GH flights to LHR where overnight left at 23:59 apart from flight GH770 which left Sunday morning and returned back on Monday 04:00. During peak time they did have a 2nd Sunday flight leaving ACC at 23:59 as flight GH773.
Only other widebody they had leaving in the day was when they operated triangle flight ACC-BEY-DXB-ACC

Thank you for the correction. I don't know why I remember it differently. Perhaps chaotic scheduling towards the end with all the disruptions?
Humble pie tastes great!

Soups, been a while since I have seen a trip report of yours. Really enjoyed them especially before youtube trip reports became a thing. Take care man!

AF022 wrote:

Air Senegal started JFK-BWI flights this week. Do we know anything about loads? I would assume first flight full of dignitaries. But the subsequent flights?

Its seems that about the load, they have good results because they will add more flights for christmas period

https://flyairsenegal.com/air-senegal-a ... aM6NLPtJ8w

Not sure how to upload photos here, but have screen grabs of Ibom Air's celebration for carrying a million pax.

It's on their Facebook page for those interested in watching.

Congratulations to them, the A220s have really been a boost!

https://m.facebook.com/ibomairlines/

5NFGS wrote:

Not sure how to upload photos here, but have screen grabs of Ibom Air's celebration for carrying a million pax.

It's on their Facebook page for those interested in watching.

Congratulations to them, the A220s have really been a boost!

https://m.facebook.com/ibomairlines/

Nice one, the lady looks really happy. The counting is for check-in or for boarding?

A side question, is the Dana - Ibom Alliance really good?

eastafspot wrote:

5NFGS wrote:

Not sure how to upload photos here, but have screen grabs of Ibom Air's celebration for carrying a million pax.

It's on their Facebook page for those interested in watching.

Congratulations to them, the A220s have really been a boost!

https://m.facebook.com/ibomairlines/

Nice one, the lady looks really happy. The counting is for check-in or for boarding?

A side question, is the Dana - Ibom Alliance really good?

Can't say yes as I don't have numbers, but it definitely is good to see more Nigerian airlines partnering.

Apart from said codeshare between Dana and Ibom,

Cally Air and Aerocontractors also have an interline agreement.

Our aviation journalists ask all the wrong questions when they do interviews!

Ibom Air orders 10 Airbus A-220 at Dubai air show

https://airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... #p23042213

Overland Airways orders 3 Embraer E-175 with options for 3 more at Dubai air show

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1466899#p23040985

Please continue to post your news and your discussion here:

West and Central African Aviation Thread - 2022

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