It’s an interesting time for African aviation, with Kenya Airways launching flights to New York, Air Tanzania having a 787 but still not operating it on longhaul flights, and Air Zimbabwe having ordered a few 777s, just to give some examples.
Here’s a cool update for an airline that plans on launching their first intercontinental, widebody flight. Air Senegal has announced that they’ll fly daily between Dakar and Paris as of February 1, 2019. This airline presently only operates a fleet of five planes, including four 737s and one turboprop. So the addition of two A330neo aircraft is a significant step for the airline.
This new flight will operate with the following schedule, per @airlineroute:
HC403 Dakar to Paris departing 9:50AM arriving 4:15PM
HC404 Paris to Dakar departing 6:45PM arriving 11:30PM
I’d love to fly Air Senegal on this route, though business class fares are pretty steep, at ~1,700USD in each direction, or ~3,000USD roundtrip. Those seem like high introductory fares for a new route on a fairly short flight, though maybe the fares will get cheaper over time.
The A330 will be configured with 32 business class seats and 258 economy seats. At ~2,600 miles in each direction, this won’t be an especially long flight.
I can’t find anything online about how Air Senegal will be configuring their A330s. I tried to go through the process of making a booking to see if they had an A330 seatmap, though they didn’t. So I guess that remains a mystery for now. Air Senegal only confirmed their order for two A330neos earlier this year, so it’s about a year from when they placed the order until when they’re commencing longhaul operations.
If you wanted to add this to part of an itinerary from the US, you could redeem just 25,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles for a one-way business class ticket on South African Airways between Washington and Dakar.
I’m curious to see what they do with their second A330neo. Maybe New York, since that’s all the rage for African airlines nowadays? 😉
Has anyone flown Air Senegal, or know more about how their A330s will be configured?
Okay - back to Air Senegal. It is the 3rd version of a Senegal flag carrier, the first two having failed for various reasons (one was due to Moroccan ownership and the other due to poor planning and ownership). The CEO of the new AS is a French man who I would guess, has close relations with Air France, and they muscled out Corsair from the competition. Now, according to FORBES, AF and AS are...
Okay - back to Air Senegal. It is the 3rd version of a Senegal flag carrier, the first two having failed for various reasons (one was due to Moroccan ownership and the other due to poor planning and ownership). The CEO of the new AS is a French man who I would guess, has close relations with Air France, and they muscled out Corsair from the competition. Now, according to FORBES, AF and AS are talking about a partnership (no surprise here) - since they now can carve out the remaining market share. BIG DIFFERENCE from the past: AS will fly to CDG whereas the previous iterations flew to Orly (much cheaper of course, and more convenient for a Senegalese-focused market). BUT, big PLUS is that AS will fly a DAY flight from Dakar to Paris, and an EVENING flight from Paris to Dakar - hence NO overnight (probably planned to reduce fees paid to park at CDG). The day flight will definitely attract folks in Dakar so chapeau to AS for not trying to compete with AF with its 777 and reliable daily overnight flight. Let's hope that AF and AS do not collude on fares (called "price fixing!!") and that AS can truly offer cheap travel RT between the two. AF can continue to pick up most connecting traffic plus its FFyers and business travel. Of course, for North American travelers, the SAA flight Dulles-Dkr is fabulous especially with miles transferred to Virgin -- or the old 757 Delta continues to fly 3x weekly NYC-DKR. SENEGAL IS BOOMING and a fantastic place to visit (watch Anthony Bourdain's great CNN documentary) with 300 days of sunshine, friendly people, interesting attractions and phenomenal food. Where are the US airlines to promote this route????? sleeping. AA or UA show zero interest. DL used to fly 767s to Senegal but dropped them for a nonstop to JNB on a 777. Thanks for listening!
Back in the day (~10 years ago) it was so hard to book Air Senegal tickets---I had to physically go to the office in downtown Dakar to get them, because the online system never seemed to work. Hopefully it's improved since then...
Unfortunately my work didn't permit us to fly Air Senegal due to safety concerns. It was commonly referred to as "Air Peut-Être" (peut-être meaning "maybe") due to its unreliability. But aviation seems to...
Back in the day (~10 years ago) it was so hard to book Air Senegal tickets---I had to physically go to the office in downtown Dakar to get them, because the online system never seemed to work. Hopefully it's improved since then...
Unfortunately my work didn't permit us to fly Air Senegal due to safety concerns. It was commonly referred to as "Air Peut-Être" (peut-être meaning "maybe") due to its unreliability. But aviation seems to be taken quite seriously in Senegal, so hopefully this reputation has changed.
Air Senegal has no Boeing 737 but only a pair of ATR72 operating one single domestic route between Dakar and Ziguinchor. They expect to receive soon an Airbus 319 in order to start operating regional routes. To Marc: when you talk about your experience with Air Sengal, you're more focusing on the landscape rather than the service from th airline you received. So recommending the airline has no sense.
My girlfriend and I flew Air Senegal to Ziguinchor in economy on the day we arrived from DC for a vacation, for which I'd highly recommend Senegal, as it were. It was one of the most beautiful flights I can remember. Watching the city from above as we saw the land open up and the rivers flow and diverge over such a green country was spectacular, and nearly the entire flight was low enough that...
My girlfriend and I flew Air Senegal to Ziguinchor in economy on the day we arrived from DC for a vacation, for which I'd highly recommend Senegal, as it were. It was one of the most beautiful flights I can remember. Watching the city from above as we saw the land open up and the rivers flow and diverge over such a green country was spectacular, and nearly the entire flight was low enough that there was something to watch. Landing was a bit scary, though we didn't bump or anything. It felt almost like the wheels were too narrow or something. Anyway, one of my favorite airport photos is of Ziguinchor. Palm trees, lugagage carts, and nobody home. It's great. Not much in the town itself, though! Was just a quick alternative to the ferry in a crunch. But the crew were warm and nice, as most Senegalese outside of Dakar tend to be. Dakar is its own crazy place, obviously.
While I absolutely dislike imperial system and hope US switches to metric one day, there are few places where inches miles and feet are standard. Aviation is one.
I am also typing this on my 15", not 38.1cm laptop.
Hi, according to airlineroute the aircraft will be configured in a J32 and Y258 seats
It's not about whining, and I can see the appeal in keeping miles around due to its frequent use in aviation, but it would be useful to see, for example:
"At ~2,600 miles (~4180km) in each direction, this won’t be an especially long flight."
For the amount of time that I'm sure the writers spend writing, I'm sure this would take an insignificant amount of time while making the blog much more accessible internationally. It's...
It's not about whining, and I can see the appeal in keeping miles around due to its frequent use in aviation, but it would be useful to see, for example:
"At ~2,600 miles (~4180km) in each direction, this won’t be an especially long flight."
For the amount of time that I'm sure the writers spend writing, I'm sure this would take an insignificant amount of time while making the blog much more accessible internationally. It's simply more readable for an international audience to have metric units, even if they're mentioned as a side note
@ forty two. The UK has used metric since the 70s. It’s not been enforced so it’s a duel system When you buy fuel for the car it’s litres Quantities of food are in grammes and kgs
A large proportion of the US population also come from metric countries
As I was schooled in both I have no problem converting mentally without being told how to ( although I have no idea about lbs/ pounds which Americans use as a method of weight )
@ all of the people asking for the distances in kilometers:
I guess it’s too much to open another tab, Google “2600 miles to km” and figure it out for yourselves.
Whine about something that matters, please.
As a imperial hater you gotta admit it’s universal in aviation area, right?
Every airline use mile to calculate other than Chinese airlines, plus due to confusion of mixing up Air China had a lost pressure event a few weeks ago.
@Forty two: True. The only miles that should ever appear in this blog are miles and points.
In international flying, statute miles are used. The blog should continue using what is accepted as the int’l standard.
When I first saw that Livery on this page, my first thought was - Ethiopian Airlines clone ... Another subsidiary. Surprised there are no links between the two ... not as I know of. The colours are almost identical on their liveries.
+1 @ Forty Two...seems like a pretty basic expectation from an international blog
+1 @ Forty Two
No idea what miles or inches are. The whole world is simply using kilometers, meters and centimeters so let's keep things simple.
I just don't get it why someone would calculate in units of 1652 meters.
And Sénégal has excluded the French airline Corsair from january 2019 to operate the route.
It is now given to Air Sénégal.
But will Air Sénégal be ready at that time to take the route?
Sénégal Airways has failed in the past...
For now Air France is probably ok to see Corsair asked to leave the route.
+1 for what @Forty two said.
This is very INTERESTING!!!!
I like to see new PLayers in the game. Looking forward to the REVIEWS!!!!
Maybe they'll use the second A330 to go to Montreal. It would connect one major French speaking centre with another.
Yeah, I know. Wishful thinking
Hi, can you mention the distance in km when you talk about distances? It's annoying as a non-American or non-British person to convert, especially on a blog as international as this.