Guinea-Bissau: Government announces new flagship Guinea-Bissau Airlines

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Guinea-Bissau: Government announces new flagship Guinea-Bissau Airlines

9:15 CAT | 12 Apr 2023

File photo: Lusa

Guinea-Bissau’s minister of transport, Aristides Ocante da Silva, on Wednesday announced the creation of Guinea-Bissau Airlines, a company to be operated jointly with a company based in Canada.

Jitaa-Aeronautics will provide the aircraft that Guinea-Bissau Airlines will use to link, initially, the Guinean capital, Bissau, with the islands of the Bijagos archipelago and the south and east of the country, Ocante da Silva said.

During the same period, which the minister did not specify, Guinea-Bissau Airlines will link Bissau to the capitals of Cabo Verde, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

In the future, which was also not determined by Ocante da Silva, the new company will operate flights to Lisbon (Portugal), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Rome (Italy).

Guinea-Bissau Airlines which will transport passengers and cargo will also handle the movement of Muslim pilgrims to the holy cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina, the minister said.

The company will also transport fishery and agricultural products from Guinea-Bissau to the international market, Ocante da Silva said.

A Guinea-Bissau technical delegation was due to travel to Lisbon to inspect the first aircraft of Guinea-Bissau Airlines, which the minister said had been delayed just to allow for the signing of the agreement creating the company.

In the near future, Aristides Ocante da Silva said, 50 crew members, assistance and maintenance staff will be trained on the ground.

As well as jobs, the transport minister believes that Guinea-Bissau Airlines will allow for an improvement in the price of airline tickets.

The vice president of the African subsidiary of Jitaa-Aeronautics, Gaussu Sauané expects Guinea-Bissau Airlines to start operating “in the shortest possible time.”

Guinea-Bissau has already trialled, with limited success, a number of flagship companies, notably Guinea-Bissau Airlines (LAGB), Guinea-Bissau Air Transport (TAGB), later named Air Bissau, which operated until 1998.

Source: Lusa