By Foday Moriba Conteh
Air Senegal was welcomed to the shores of the country by the Government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and other line MDAs on its inaugural flight operation at the Freetown International Airport.
Minister of Information and Communication, Mohamed Rahman Swarray, in his opening address acknowledged the challenges of air transportation whilst assuring that Air Senegal will significantly remedy the situation, for which he says they are grateful.
The Minister furthered that the new development was made possible due to the great relationship between President Bio, Vice President Juldeh Jalloh and the President of Senegal, Macky Sall.
Ibrahim Khan the Chief Executive Officer of Air Senegal, expressed delight at the warm welcome bestowed by the authorities in Sierra Leone at the airport. He said the flight operations would connect the two countries, deepen bi-lateral ties and open trade and tourism. He commended the two Presidents for building a strong relationship between the two nations, mentioning that the main change the airline would bring to the airspace is connecting Sierra Leone route to other West African Countries and the rest of the world with a very low fare for people to have fair access to travel.
Dr. Memunatu Pratt, Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, mentioned that it is a great boost to the tourism sector as Air Senegal offers exotic and attractive prices in linking Sierra Leone to over twenty global destinations.
She said the coming of Air Senegal to Sierra Leone is very timely and the hospitality industry is delighted and looking forward to working with them in developing tour packages and having an arrangement for prospective visitors to Sierra Leone to use Air Senegal.
The Minister noted that the sustainability of their operations is highly dependent on tourism, hence the need to grow the regional tourism. She then presented the tourism ‘traveltainment’ magazine to the CEO of Air Senegal.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Hinga Sandy thanked the leaders of the two countries and the CEO of Air Senegal for the operation of Air Senegal in Sierra Leone, adding that the coming of the airline to Sierra Leone means a lot for businesses in the two countries.
The Minister of Transport and Aviation, Kabineh Kallon in his address said the commencement of flight operation into Sierra Leone by Air Senegal is as a result of continuous bi-lateral engagements between the Government of Senegal and the Government of Sierra Leone for which he was grateful to the two Presidents and Vice President, Juldeh Jalloh for cementing and promoting stronger bi-lateral ties between the two sister countries.
He maintained that the introduction of Air Senegal into the Freetown International Airport route will facilitate air travel and increase connectivity options to other parts of the world with affordable fares to stimulate growth in traffic, revenues and associated parameters much to the potential benefit of the two countries.
The highpoint of the occasion was when the Ministry of Transport and Aviation granted a Foreign Operator’s Permit to Air Senegal to operate flight in Sierra Leone starting August 2nd 2021.
It was disclosed that Air Senegal is operating four days in a week, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with possible connections to the United States, Europe and Casablanca thereafter.
