Sahelian Airlines:A New Airline to light up Central and West Africa?

A multinational start-up carrier,Sahelian Air is seeking to raise funds from investors and individuals in order to commence operations in the Central and West African region within 5 years.

Sahelian Air

The Sahelian Air Project,headquartered in Atlanta,USA, is the culmination of the vision and dreams of Senegalese entrepreneur Mr.Chams-Eddine NDIAYE to build a Pan African airline in order to "facilitate air transport in Africa by offering passengers new choices in terms of network,quality of service,price,safety".

Sahelian Air Presentation in French

If you were to draw an aviation heat map of Africa,Central Africa is the undisputed aviation black hole in Africa.There is no major international legacy airline in this whole region that some analysts refer to as the "problem child of Africa".While regions like East Africa and Southern Africa boast quality airlines like Kenya Airways,Ethiopian Airlines,Fly540,Air Uganda,Precision Air SAA,TAAG,Kulula,Mango,Air Botswana and Air Zimbabwe ,Central Africa has no airline of repute!

Perhaps due to years of strife and underdevelopment,Central Africa  has always been known for its cheap mostly Soviet era flying coffins,with their latest victims being an entire board of an Australian mining company.

"Sahelian Air revolves around the creation of a group of local airlines which are developing domestic air routes,regional and international departure of the main capitals of West and Central Africa"the start-up states in its strategic plan.
The Sahelian Air group has already formed technical partnerships with Airbus,ATR and Sabre Aiurline Solutions.The airline will involve 'international private partners' for its initiation and development that is expected to cover 35% of Sahelian Group's capital.The group will enlist the assistance of private and public institutional donors in its next 5 years growth in a financing model it calls a 'double financial partnership'.

The main objective of the airline is to develop a fluid network in the Cental and West African subregions covering Accra,Abidjan,Bamako,Ouagadougou,Lome , Cotonou,Doula and Brazzaville in the initial phase.The next phase is expected will include Kinshasa,Ndjamena,Addis Ababa,Bangui,Tripoli,Niamey and Luanda.In terms of market share,Sahelian Airlines expects to carry 35% of Africa's annual air traffic of 20 million,with 2.35million passengers flying the future airline on international routes and 4.65 million on interlines.
 
What do you think of Mr.Chams-Eddine NDIAYE's dream to change the equation on African skies by introducing a new legacy carrier for West and Central Africa?Kindly let us know.

Sahelian Presentation in English