Gabonese gov't pushes ahead with new national carrier plans ch-aviation PRO exclusive

Ethiopian Mozambique Airlines (Maputo) will open a base in Beira leveraging the Indian Ocean port city's geographical location to better serve the Mozambican market.

Ethiopian Airlines' Country Manager (Mozambique), Daniel Tsige, told Noticias newspaper last week that the long-term vision is to transform Beira into a regional hub.

“Since Beira is geographically in the centre of Mozambique and has an airport in good condition, it can rapidly develop into a central connecting point," he said.

In line with that objective, Ethiopian Airlines will start 3x weekly flights from Addis Ababa to Beira in late July, Tsige added.

Since commencing operations in November of last year using a trio of Dash 8-400s wet-leased from its parent, Ethiopian Mozambique Airlines has relied on Maputo, located in the extreme south of the country, as its primary base.

According to the ch-aviation schedules module, its Beira operations will see connectivity to Maputo, Lichinga, Nampula, Pemba, Quelimane, Tete, and Vilanculos.

Gabon Airlines (GY, Libreville) is officially in liquidation after a Libreville court issued a directive to dispose of the defunct carrier's assets, the Gabonese Review has reported. As the official successor to Air Gabon (GN, Libreville) and its still-borne Royal Air Maroc-aligned successor, Air Gabon International (Libreville), Gabon Airlines was founded in 2007 by private investors, banks and insurers with its CEO Christian Bongo Ondimba, a son of former Gabonese strongman Omar Bongo. Initial operations between Libreville and Paris CDG took place on 11 April 2007 using a B767-200(ER) and an A340-300, CS-TQM (c/n 117) on lease from Hi Fly (5K, Lisbon). However, difficulties were soon encountered with the airline posting significant losses over the following four years. Flights ceased in 2011 while in 2012, the carrier lost its Air Operators Certificate. Among the assets that have since been disposed of include the 767-200(ER), TR-LHP (msn 21877), which had been grounded in Addis Ababa since 2007 over an unpaid debt to Ethiopian Airlines (ET,...