Africa

According to an Air France spokesman speaking to AFP, the national airline has been authorised to serve Bamako three times a week. The frequencies are scheduled on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. The airline previously served Bamako with a daily flight. According to the same source, the flights will no longer be operated by the airline's own aircraft. Air France...

Air France flights have been suspended since 7 August due to the coup d'état in Niger, and will not be resuming any time soon, at least not before the end of September. The French airline has renewed the suspension of its four weekly flights to Niamey. This suspension also affects services to Mali and...

The arrival of the winter season will see an increase in long-haul routes on the Transavia network. These include routes to Africa and the Middle East, but also, for the first time, to the Gulf - in particular Dubai. To Africa, the low-cost subsidiary of the Air France-KLM group will be launching services to Cape Town at the end of October...

The Rotana Group is to contribute to the development of the new town of Diamniadio, in Senegal, with a long-stay hotel due to open in 2026. While Diamniadio already has a Radisson Blu hotel, the Middle Eastern hotelier will be adding to the accommodation on offer in this smart city designed to relieve congestion in Dakar. Since 2015, this new showcase for the country has been gradually expanding...

18 destinations, including many flights operated on a daily basis. This is what Brussels Airlines is offering this winter on its Sub-Saharan Africa network from Brussels. The Belgian national carrier is bringing a tenth Airbus A330 back into service for the 2024 summer season. This will enable it to restore its fleet...

Pullman has discovered a new country - South Africa - with its Triangle House in Cape Town. One of the city's tallest skyscrapers, this cruciform tower dominates its historic centre from the top of its 104 metres, while offering business travellers an ideal base from which to...

The Hilton group's luxury hotel chain Waldorf Astoria is discovering the African continent with the opening of its first hotel in Cairo, in the Heliopolis district. The interiors blend Art Deco with references to the Pharaonic era, and the 252 sophisticated rooms and suites reflect the country's cultural history through locally inspired works of art and graphic...

Political relations between France and Africa may be a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but there is at least one segment where everything is going swimmingly: air transport. The number of passengers flying from France to Africa is showing the strongest growth of all international routes. According to...

The situation in Niger, with flight restrictions, is forcing Air France to suspend certain flights to Africa. On Monday, Air France renewed the suspension of flights to Mali and Burkina Faso following the closure of airspace in neighbouring Niger. The measure was originally temporary. But it has...

Six years after the inauguration of Senegal's new gateway, Blaise-Diagne International Airport (AIBD) will be taking on a new dimension in a few months' time. The Senegalese TER will be serving a new station within the airport hub. The new terminal was inaugurated in July by the President of Senegal...

On 7 August, Air France announced the suspension of flights to Niger, as well as to Mali and Burkina Faso. Niger's airspace had in any case been closed since the previous day. A spokeswoman for the airline told Reuters: "Because of the ongoing coup in Niger and the...

The Abidjan Exhibition Centre (PEA) was officially inaugurated on 17 July by Tiémoko Meyliet Koné, Vice-President of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire. Strategically located at Abidjan Port-Bouët, next to Félix Houphouët-Boigny airport, it occupies no less than 16 hectares. And it lays claim to the status of the largest exhibition centre...

With a solid catalogue of African destinations, Brussels Airlines is looking after its business customers with appropriate infrastructures. The renovation of the Sunrise lounge, officially completed on 7 July, is part of this approach. Located in zone T at Brussels airport, this lounge is designed to welcome business class passengers...

As part of Egypt's "Vision 2030" development plan, the national carrier Egyptair announced at the end of June the possibility of obtaining a free transit visa. The measure, announced by Mohamed Abbas Helmy, Minister of Civil Aviation, should help revitalise tourism. This facility offers visitors the chance to stay in Egypt for a few days,...

What do you think of Niger as a business destination? Etienne Giros - Niger was a good partner for the CIAN forum. It seems to me that the Nigerien authorities have a certain "desire for France" and are pro-business. There is a favourable business climate. Of course, this is part of a region...

In the shadow of Vienna's coronation in the ICCA rankings, and while everyone was on the lookout for this post-Covid MICE atlas, the news passed relatively unnoticed. Yet it is indicative of the rise of an ambitious destination, a newcomer intent on carving out a place for itself in the sun of major international events. For the...

Could you tell us more about the fairly recent development of MICE in Niger? Mohamed Saidil Moctar - In 2019, Niger hosted the conference of heads of state and government of the African Union. It was a gamble that we took in 2015, a difficult gamble because the country had virtually no infrastructure adapted to...

As one of the hotel groups with the strongest presence in Africa's major cities, the Radisson Group is actively pursuing its development strategy. As part of this growth drive, the hotel group has signed a contract to open seven new hotels in the first half of 2023, adding a total of 1,400 new rooms...

Royal Air Maroc is expecting an excellent summer season as travel conditions normalise. The Moroccan national carrier says it is experiencing "strong demand for its flights, in a buoyant context marked by a good recovery in business and tourist travel". RAM's ramp-up over the summer is reflected...

A mega-city in the middle of a desert plain: in 2015, Egypt embarked on a gigantic project to build its New Capital, forty-five kilometres east of Cairo. Eight years on, construction is stretching over 270 square kilometres, halfway between the historic capital and the port city of Suez. This project...