Following the arrival of its Airbus A319-100 in Banjul, The Gambia on Monday, Gambia Bird, the new 90/10 venture between German carrier, Germania (ST) and the Gambian government, has announced it will commence ops on 1 October 2012, with its first flight being Banjul, The Gambia to Dakar, Senegal. |
| Gambia Bird's A319 (K Newsome) |
Malleh Sallah, Chief Administrative Officer of Gambia Bird Limited, said the new airline intends to provide the West African market with safe, reliable and affordable air travel available to everyone:
“Everyone has a stake in the future of Gambia Bird, the business people who need a punctual scheduled service, the tourists from Europe and other African countries who enjoy the special West African hospitality and friends and families working in Europe who want to visit home."
The airline has already applied and been approved for air traffic
rights to the UK, Sierra Leone, Guinea Conakry, Ghana
and some other parts of West Africa, with their immediate route network understood to include Dakar (Senegal), Conakry (Guinea), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Monrovia (Liberia), Accra (Ghana), London-Gatwick (UK) and now surprisingly, Barcelona in Spain. The start-up Gambian carrier is able to skirt the EU Ban and operate flights to Europe as its aircraft maintenance is handled by Germania Technik.
As part of the venture and in preparation for the building of a Line Maintenance Station in Banjul, Gambia has already sent ten Gambians to Germany for training on aircraft technical aspects and other flight operations procedures.