Air Senegal Plans To Fly To The US

This will work only if they use it to feed West Africa. I suspect that SAA moved the Dakar stop to Accra because there are meaningful ties between DC and Ghana. Senegal not so much, but there could be ample government travel to other locations Air Senegal serves.

Will the US government allow this, given the wet lease technicality? Should be a fairly easy loophole to close if they want to.

So any airline that doesn't meet US safety requirements can simply wet lease and get around the restructions?

Under the wet lease, crew will be Hi Fly Malta, not Air Senegal.

The Senegalese government has a policy called the Plan Senegal Emergent, and Air Senegal's development of a massive transit hub in Dakar is part of that strategy. Also, Delta upgauged Dakar to a 767 from a 757 and is now I think at 5x a week, so there must be growth potential there. Additionally, a nonstop has advantages during the pandemic because otherwise you have to transit Europe. Delta is charging 1100 RT on the route when TAP has it below 400, and still sustainable. Delta was at 2x in July, now up to 5x.

Also, RE the wet lease, Air Astana and Uzbekistan Airways both do this to get around EU airspace regulation by registering their planes in Aruba. It's an old trick that puts the planes under the maintenance rules of the EU. HY flies to JFK so I imagine the FAA is fine with it.

Dakar was the primary transatlantic West African destination from the US for decades from the mid-1960s through the 1990's. Air Afrique, the pan-African multi-national airline flew the JFK-Dakar route as one of it's premier international services. Initially, the flight was in "cooperation" with Pan Am, and later it operated its own DC-8s and DC-10s on this service. Dakar was used as a hub for onward services throughout west and central Africa.

Marty why do you just assume Air Senegal has lower safety standards than in the US? How many US planes departing from US soil have crashed causing fatalities? How many planes have crashed or around Senegal resulting in fatalities? I'll help you out: 1 ONE - there was a mechanical problem (manufacturer defect) over the ocean and it wasn't a Senegalese plane.

Glass houses and all that......

"The Washington to Dakar flight would cover a distance of around 4,000 miles, so flights between the US and Africa don’t get much shorter than that (though there are some flights to Northern Africa that are even shorter)."

JFK to CMN is 3,609 miles making it the shortest route from the US to Africa. IAD to DKR is about 3,900 miles.

Starting this spring, Delta is actually going daily JFK-DSS on the 763ER..something it had never attempted even before the pandemic!

@TO - Actually they used to fly it daily JFK-DKR on the 767-300ER back in the early days (2006) when the station first opened and the flight carried on to Johannesburg.

I'm not sure the loophole is a loophole. Operations of a plane registered in Malta are subject to regulatory oversight of EASA and Maltese authorities.

This seems perfectly legit to me - the US authorities don't trust Senegal's regulators, so the airline will use a plane registered elsewhere, which will therefore be subject to higher standards imposed by EASA. I don't see anything wrong with that.

Air Senegal is flying to the US, but who would want to fly them ?

@Fed UP, do you know anything about Air Senegal? Dakar is one of the more interesting, welcoming Franophone West African cities along with Abidjan. Senegal is a safe, relatively democratic country for the most part. It doesn't have the traditional pull of more scenic destinations in East and Southern Africa and the Senegalese Government is generally fairly competent. Are you just assuming African airline=terrible?

Fed Up - again, SERIOUSLY? John thanks for stepping up; what a racist comment. Have you SEEN the planes that Air Senegal purchased and are already using for Dakar/France/EU? Obviously not.

Just plain ignorant, on all levels.

Sineta George,

Where was FEDUP racist in this remark?

Fed UP says:
February 16, 2021 at 8:15 am
Air Senegal is flying to the US, but who would want to fly them ?

He\she is entited an opinion just as you are; being no more accurate or incorrect as your thoughts. Just because you disagree with what was said doesnt automatically make it racist....

I wish A\S luck and hope the competition is good for a travel revival.