By Hajaratu Kalokoh
The Senegalese based airline, TransAir, has commenced operations in Sierra Leone. The first flight of the airline landed at the Freetown International Airport in Lungi on Monday, November 18.
The 50-sitter airline will fly to the country twice a week - Mondays and Fridays - via The Gambian capital, Banjul.
Quality and Safety Manager for TransAir, El Hadji Faye, explained during the inauguration ceremony of the airline’s service in Sierra Leone on Monday that they are set up in a way to minimize the usual constraints that come with air traveling.
“We constantly monitor and measure check-in waiting time, baggage delivery time gain on ground time, and flight delays. As we aim to provide value for money to our clients, TransAir solution guarantees careful and thought out coordination and planning of the chain of services provided to aircrafts during their stop at Dakar,” he said.
Faye added: “For us information technology is a key success factor, we have put in place the necessary infrastructure to properly manage our operations and provide a full scale of its solutions to our customers. This is applicable for ground and air operations.”
Groupe TransAir is a private Airline with 100% of its shareholders being Senegalese. The airline was established in 2009 by Captain Alioune Fall. It started by providing scheduled passenger services within Senegal.
Today, it flies internationally to other parts of West Africa.
TransAir operates over 60 flights per week, with around 40 domestic and 20 international flights.
Blaise Diagne International airport, which is the main international airport in Dakar, is the hub for Groupe TransAir.
Deputy Director, Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Authority (SLCAA), Fatu Maria Wurie Conteh, noted that the commencement of the airline’s operation in Freetown will increase connectivity between the two countries.
“The benefit of having a direct flight from Freetown International Airport to Dakar - Senegal through Banjul - The Gambia cannot be overemphasized for passengers frequently using this route. Not only will cost of travelling into these countries be reduced significantly, but also travel time will improve, thus enhancing passenger convenience, and flight frequencies will increase overtime,” she said.
"This is one among many Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs) and Open Skies Agreements Sierra Leone has signed to make our country attractive and accessible, because we believe that aviation is an enabler in the sense that it can stimulate the much needed tourism, trade, employment and economic growth," she added.
Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation, Sadiq Silla, noted that ECOWAS countries could use aviation to ensure integration in the region.
"It is incumbent upon us as ECOWAS citizens, as brothers and sisters, to make sure our connectivity is the state of the art; if others are doing integration using aviation and other approaches to better their own region, why not us?" he asked.
TransAir first attempted to commence operation in Sierra Leone in 2017, but they had to cancel the plan over concerns about the expensive nature of aviation business in the country at the time.
Transair is the latest airline that has started operations in Sierra Leone in the last two months, after Air Cote d’Ivoire which resumed flights to Freetown in October.
Both airlines joined an increasing fleet of airlines that are flying to Freetown.
The two new airlines come at a time when government has just announced a cut on GST on aviation charges.
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