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# Senegal : The sky darkens around Air Senegal after only 2 months of activity. Damages on its planes, cost of parking and repair … Le360 Africa takes stock of the sums that had to pay the new airline.
The management of Air Senegal and the ministry of supervision adopt the law of the omerta concerning the amount of the repairs of the two planes recently damaged. This silence from the Senegalese authorities does not erase the many millions of CFA francs already engulfed by the launch, somewhat hasty, of the new airline. One would be tempted to say that the game was worth the candle for Maïmouna Ndoye Seck, Minister of Air Transport and Airport Infrastructure Development. Indeed, the establishment of a new national airline was an imperative to succeed in making Dakar, a regional air hub, one of the flagship projects of the Senegal Emerging Plan, so dear to Macky Sall.
A bill in the amount difficult to evaluate
Air Sénégal SA resumed its rotations this Friday, July 20th. The new airline was able to repair one of the two aircraft, after 13 days of interruption. Nevertheless, the damage having grounded its two aircraft made it more difficult for Air Sénégal SA to take off.
>>> READ ALSO: Air Senegal: two months after its launch, the curse is already striking the company
This unexpected stoppage represents a serious tile. "Only the company can say how much is the shortfall of this interruption of activity. But what must be said is that with tickets at 66,000 FCFA for an ATR-72 with a maximum capacity of 74 seats for services twice a day, there is no need to make any complicated calculations to know that the losses are consequent, "says an aviation technician under cover of anonymity.
Assuming that the company displays full on each flight, for each of the two aircraft, the lack of The daily profit could be estimated at 9.768.000 FCFA (14.690 euros).
"It can happen that flights are canceled for several days because of the claims. But in such cases, it is the insurance companies who bear the costs, "continues our source who did not tell us who the insurers in question.
A parking that is expensive at Air Senegal SA [19659004] For the acquisition of the two aircraft ATR 72-600 with a capacity of 68 to 78 seats with a French-Italian aircraft manufacturer, the State of Senegal had already disbursed the sum of 32.25 billion CFA francs (50 million euros, list price). This sum was financed by export credit to the French company Coface and its Italian partner, SACE.
Delivered in November 2017, the two aircraft had been kept at Toulouse Francazal airfield until May 2018, which means six months of parking fees added to the initial bill. Indeed, if we refer to Toulouse Francazal's tariff guide for fees, Air Senegal had to pay 250 euros (excluding tax) per day, which represents a total of 87,200 euros (58 million CFA francs), even before starting its activity.
As many costs and difficulties that have made it almost impossible competition with large African and international companies.
For the moment, Air Senegal SA is content to provide two daily flights Dakar-Ziguinchor, or 14 routes per week. The journey to a national company, subregional champion, seems very long. However, hope is allowed.
"Senegal has all the assets to set up a viable, sustainable and profitable airline. We demonstrated this with the Seabury Market Study and the Expert Panel. The business plan developed by the Senegalese experts and the international firm Seabury provided for 7 destinations, 41 weekly frequencies and a daily use rate of the two 14-hour aircraft, "said a member of the expert group who participated in the studies. before the launch of the new Senegalese company
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