Africa World Airlines starts service

Africa World Airlines (AWA) is to commence regional flights to four Nigerian destinations in October this year, an official of the airline has said.

Africa World Airlines (AWA) is to commence regional flights to four Nigerian destinations in October this year, an official of the airline has said.

The airline has been granted permission by Nigeriaโ€™s Civil Aviation Authority to operate flights from Accra to Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kanu, making it the first home-grown carrier to acquire the rights to fly to four major cities in the oil-rich country.

According to Mr. Apiigy Afenu, the Chief Operating Officer of the airline, the airline has also being granted permission to fly to neighboring Sierra Leone. โ€œThe airline is tentatively looking to commence its Accra-Lagos-Accra flight on October 2, 2013, the independence day of Nigeria,โ€ he said.

AWAโ€™s morning flights to Tamale will be operated on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The flights are scheduled to depart Accra at 7:00am and return from Tamale at 8:30 am.

The airline is offering an introductory fare of GHยข100 one-way (tax inclusive) on its morning flight from Accra to Tamale.

The Ghana news media reports:

AWA currently operates daily afternoon flights between Accra and Tamale and it is expected that the introduction of its morning flights will afford passengers more air travel options between the two cities.

Mr. Afenu said: โ€œIn terms of our operations, we monitor the routes very carefully and once we record load factors above 70 โ€” that is for our aircraft if we consistently carry more than 35 passengers over a period of time โ€” then we realize that there is a demand for additional service. Tamale has been very good to us.

Most times we carry above 40 passengers [on the afternoon flight], so we thought that the logical thing is to introduce a second flight because demand has been high.

โ€œWe thrive on competition. Safety, reliability, and service are the three key things that passengers look out for. For safety, our pilots are trained to the highest standard. We have a Quick Access Recorder (QAR), a quality flight monitoring program installed on our aircraft to monitor the performance of our pilots. The standards are set so high that even when there are minute violations we call them to task. In terms of safety, our airline is second to none,โ€ he said.

Mr. Ridwane Adamou, the acting Head of Commercial of the airline, said: โ€œEssentially, we introduced the morning flights because of the demand from the public. We carried out a survey of our passengers in May and June and then decided to introduce the morning flights to give flexibility and more travel option to the public.โ€

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...