Le Senegal is displaying thwarted aviation ambitions. For more than a decade, the country has wanted to establish itself as the West Africa hub but had to face a variety of difficulties. Firstly, with its new airportwhose construction and the opening were delayed several times. The hub, located 50 km from the Senegalese capital, finally opened its doors in December 2017 with an initial capacity of two million passengersthen 5 million by 2022. Then with its national airline. First there was Air Sénégal Internationaland bankruptcy in 2009 and Senegal Airlineswhich ceased trading in 2016. Since 2018, a Frenchman, Philippe Bohn, former head of Africa at Airbuswho is at the helm of the national carrier. The airline only serves regional routes in the UK with a fleet of five aircraft: two ATR72s and three Airbus A319s.
The network currently comprises nine destinations from Dakar: Ziguinchor on the domestic route and Abidjan, Bamako, Banjul, Bissau, Conakry, Cotonou, Ouagadougou, Praia (Cape Verde).
For its arrival in Paristhe company must rely on two Airbus A330-900neobecoming the the first African carrier to put this aircraft into service. The aircraft will offer two classes of service, business and economy. Unlike Corsair, Air Sénégal will be landing at Roissy CDG.
Any other French ports of call in the pipeline?
Flights will leave Paris at 6.45pm and land at 11.30pm. On the return leg, the aircraft will take off from Dakar at 9.50am, landing in Paris at 4.15pm. In both directions, passengers will have to spend a night on the ground to reach Air Sénégal's regional destinations. Air Sénégal's timetable means that passengers will lose the benefit of using the connecting network. Unlike theAir Francewhich arrives in Dakar at around 6am. The competition will therefore be tough for Senegal's young national airline, which nevertheless has stated its ambition to open other stopovers in France. Marseille and Lyon seem to be the best positioned for flights to Dakar - as well as a new flight to the French capital. Sao Paulo.
