17th Feb 2020 | Elizabeth Sasu
Indigenous Ghanaian carrier, Africa World Airlines (AWA), launches its maiden flight from Accra, Ghana to Abidjan , La Cote D’ivoire.
The new route which is their 10th destination will substantially strengthen the airline, the proud winner of the “Best Airline in West Africa” presence in the sub-region. The inaugural flight took off from Kotoka International Airport, Accra at 1515 hrs on the 14th of February, 2020 with an estimated flight time of 50 minutes and landed in the Felix Houphouet Boigny Airport, Abidjan amidst a welcome water canon spray and applause from passengers onboard. It will be a six weekly flight each way between Accra and Abidjan.
Mr. Sean Mendis, the Chief Operating Officer of AWA, stressed on the importance of the Abidjan route for being their first ” foray into a francopnone market” looking at how Ghana is surrounded on the three sides by french countries. He stated that the “expansion is very key to our overall plans and our strategic growth”.
The Ambassador of Ghana to Côte d’Ivoire Frederick Daniel Laryea, said that, the coming of the Ghanaian airline to Abidjan will “boost business travels and increase the flow of possible investments between the two countries”. Also that, the airline industry “needs to position itself well to take advantage well to take advantage of the expected increase in business activities among the African countries” since AFCTA is in force.
Togbe Afede, the co-Charman of Africa World Airlines expressed his appreciation to his staff and the Abidjan airport authorities for making this route expansion a reality. In his speech, he averred that the “essence of the airline has always been to “link all of Africa countries and that is the journey we are still embarking on”. “We have distinguished ourselves in terms of reliability, safety and on time performance” thereby winning a lot of awards like the AviaTour 2019 “Airline with best passenger experience”. “These are the qualities that we are bringing here to make Ivorians enjoy flying with Africa World Airlines”, he said.
The Head of Commercial, Richard Kyereh, ended it all by saying that, the airlines vision was to make Ghana the “aviation hub by encouraging passengers within the sub-region to connect through Kotoka International Airport and at the end of the day we are goin to get enormous benefits out of that”. He shared the fact, they had pursued the permit for a while (1year and a half) before getting it warranting them to start flying now.
The inaugural flight was captained by Captain Kwesi Oteng and his crew with over 40 passengers onboard the ERJ145 LR Embraer plane.
All flights will operate using Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft, offering the convenience and speed of a jet aircraft experience, with the guarantee of no uncomfortable middle seats. The flight schedule will be as below (all times Local).
AW428 ACC dep 1450 arr 1545 ABJ Friday only
AW432 ACC dep 1820 arr 1915 ABJ Mon/Wed/Thu/Sat/Sun
AW421 ABJ dep 0725 arr 0820 ACC Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri/Sun
AW429 ABJ dep 1615 arr 1710 ACC Friday only
ABOUT
Africa World Airlines is a private sector Ghanaian airline based in Accra. AWA started operations in 2012 and now operates a fleet of 8 jet aircraft across 9 destinations throughout Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone; with services to Cote D’lvoire planned to commence shortly.
AWA maintains IOSA certification, the global gold standard for aviation safety, and is the only IATA member airline presently headquarted in Ghana. AWA was recently inducted into the CIMG Hall of Fame after being voted as “Domestic Airline of the Year” in Ghana for 5 consecutive years, and was also recognised for “Best Connectivity in West Africa” by African Travel Times magazine.
Source: gh-aviation
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