Air Senegal is the flag carrier for the West African country of Senegal. From its hub at Blaise Diagne International Airport (DSS), the carrier operates services to other cities in the region, as well as to Europe, and even across the Atlantic to Baltimore (with a stop at JFK). It manages to do all of this with a fleet of just nine aircraft. Let’s take a look at these nine planes in the Air Senegal fleet.
Air Senegal’s fleet of eight (or nine)
Let’s first take a look at the composition of the airline’s small fleet as a whole, according to data from Planespotters.net. The aircraft types are listed below with quantities in parentheses:
- ATR72-600 (2)
- Airbus A319-100* (2)
- Airbus A321-200 (2)
- Airbus A330-900 (2)
*Data from ch-aviation.com notes that the airline is currently wet leasing a third Airbus A319-100 from Lithuanian operator GetJet. The aircraft began Air Senegal flights on August 20th. The length of the airline’s lease for this A319 is currently unknown.
Small in numbers, big on diversity
The most striking thing about the Air Senegal fleet is its high diversity relative to its small size. The carrier has just eight aircraft (nine if you count the temporary wet lease) but operates three different types.
With such a small fleet yet diverse stable of aircraft, one could assume that maintenance costs could be high. Indeed, there might be some small inefficiencies present in day-to-day operations, but perhaps not as much as you would think.
For starters, the A319 and A321 belong to the same family and have a very high degree of commonality. More importantly, however, the airline has chosen to outsource its MRO needs to Air France-KLM’s MRO division: AFI KLM E&M. While the name isn’t particularly elegant, the letters stand for “Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance.”
According to a 2019 article by Aviation Pros, Air Senegal has chosen this European firm to handle its MRO needs via a long-term contract. This sees AFI KLM E&M handle A330neo component support as well as flight hour repairs, and access to the spares pool. The company also takes care of Air Senegal’s ATR72-600 and A319 fleet. While the A321s joined the fleet after the publishing of the Aviation Pros piece, it might be relatively safe to assume that AFI KLM E&M will also handle these jets.
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Airbus A220s coming soon?
It was back in November 2019 that Air Senegal signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for eight Airbus A220-300s. At the time, Air Senegal CEO, Mr Ibrahima Kane, noted that the new aircraft would contribute to developing the carrier’s long-haul network to Europe and its regional network in Africa. “Combined with our recent A330neo aircraft, this new Airbus fleet reveals Air Senegal’s ambition to offer the best travel experience for our passengers,” he added.
Nearly two years have passed, and there has been relatively little news on this deal. If and when a deal moves forward, MoUs are typically followed up with the announcement of a ‘firming up’ of the contract. Unfortunately, we have yet to see this happen.
For the time being, we have to assume that the airline still intends on adding the A220 to its fleet. ch-aviation.com is doing the same, having eight A220s listed as “to be delivered.”
What do you think of Air Senegal’s small fleet of aircraft? Are you excited to see the Airbus A220 join in? Let us know by leaving a comment.
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