Africa World Airlines to acquire two A319s

Africa World Airlines (AWA) is to acquire two A319 aircraft by the end of the year as it scales up its West African operations.

The airline, which currently flies twice daily to the populous West African City of Lagos, plans to start servicing the Accra-Abuja route by July.

Freetown, Monrovia, Banjul and Dakar are the next routes in the sub-region that the airline plans to operate by the end of the year.

Africa World Airlines’ Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mr. Apiigy Afenu, said: “We look forward to acquiring two of the A319s this year, and many more as the company progresses. This can help us with our West Coast expansion and help us to be competitive on the Lagos route.

‘We are a very conservative organisation. We have looked at the lessons that we have learnt from Lagos and are applying those lessons to opening the Accra-Abuja route. We don't want to make any mistakes; we've learnt from the past mistakes. That is why we are taking our time. We think that we will be ready by the end of June begin going to Abuja.”

Competition on the Accra-Lagos route is intense. The route is serviced by two Nigerian carriers, Aero and Arik, -- and AWA, which is based in Ghana.

AWA -- with a little less than two years of operation -- commands a decent and growing domestic market share. It now operates four daily flights between Accra-Tamale and three daily flights between Accra-Kumasi.

Mr. Apiigy said: “We have a guiding principle we adhere to religiously. When we fly on a particular route and consistently our load factors are above 70 percent of our capacity, we have two options; either we raise fares or introduce another flight. As a result, we decided to increase the Tamale flights to four flights a week”.