Sierra Leone May Open Domestic Skies to SAA

A senior government official in Sierra Leone has said that South African Airways (SAA) may be awarded a licence to manage and operate domestic air services within the country. The information follows just weeks after a reported deal with Arik Air of Nigeria to establish Leone Airways to add international services within the continent and into Europe.

The country’s Trade and Industry Minister, Richard Konteh, revealed the plan during a ten-day visit to South Africa to discuss enhancing links and investment in Sierra Leone. "We can encourage SAA or any other airline to consider using the opportunities that we could make available in terms of our space for flights for them to able to fly around," he told local journalists. "If SAA so desires [to establish direct flights] we can engage."

There are currently no direct links from Sierra Leone to South Africa and there is only a limited demand. In the past year an estimated 6,600 O&D passengers travelled between the two countries, but there is potential to establish links with key trading partners within Africa.

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NOTE: Schedule data extracted from Flightbase for week commencing April 14, 2011; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending February 2011.