DAS Air Cargo

[mutt]

Do DAS Air Cargo operate any of their DC10's in passenger configuration?


Mutt :)

[Stratocaster]

The answer is yes and no... :D

It is actually the DC-10-30 DAS Air Cargo bought from African Safari last year that's currently in use for the "Africa One" operation.

[mutt]

Thanks for that Stratocaster, would you mind explaining what the "Africa One" operation is all about?

My curiosity is based on seeing one of their DC10's parked on the Royal apron in Jeddah, which is an extremely unusual parking area for a cargo aircraft.

Mutt.

[Stratocaster]

It's a multi-national African start-up. Senior executives from DAS Air Cargo are among the investors in the project. They plan to develop a network of routes throughout Africa connecting the majors hubs in Europe and the MidEast. Routes to Dubai, Dar-es-Salaam and Jo'burg from Entebbe and Lagos are supposed to start this month.

A second DC-10 is supposed to join the fleet within the next three months. They also talk about five DC-9/MD-80 (first deliveries expected before the summer) in order to establish a pan-African regional network with hubs in Uganda and Nigeria.

Quite ambitious, isn't it ? I'm curious to see if they can survive a whole year. Good luck !
:)

You can check out their livery right here... (http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=225950)
If the plane you saw at the Royal apron in JED was in DAS Air Cargo's livery, it can't be passenger. Maybe the plane was full of... errr... well, you know what I mean ! :D

[newswatcher]

See also from the BBC(17/4):

"A new passenger airline will be launched in Uganda at the end of April to compete directly with Kenya Airways, one of Africa's most profitable airlines. The new airline, Africa One, will be based in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and use Entebbe International Airport as its hub.

"We are going to launch the airline from Entebbe airport on 29 April (and) in Lagos on 1 May with our inaugural flight to London the next day," the airline's chairman, Captain Joe Roy, told Reuters.

"We will be in direct competition with Kenya Airways on our routes but we hope to be competitive by eventually providing more destinations, connections and better service," said Mr Roy, a pilot with defunct East African Airways in the 1960s and 1970s.

The airline will use four DC-10-30s to make bi-weekly trips from Entebbe to Lagos and then on to Gatwick airport via Banjul, Gambia and Freetown, Sierra Leone, he said. Other planned routes include Entebbe-Johannesburg and Entebbe-Nairobi-Dar es Salaam, Mr Roy said.

"African travel is growing and growing rapidly and experience has shown once you open a route people start travelling that route," he said.

Kenya Airways has more than doubled the number of its flights to Uganda in the last five years. Africa One is owned by African Joint Air Services (AJAS), which formerly operated as Alliance Air, and is affiliated to Britain's DAS Aircargo, the largest cargo handler between Europe and Africa. AJAS was taken over by Ugandan and Tanzanian businessmen who bought the two governments' shares in 2001 and tookover the debts incurred by Alliance Air.

Mr Roy said Africa One would employ former Uganda and Alliance airlines staff.

The airline also plans to list its shares on regional bourses within three years, he said."

[non sched]

Newswatcher

Do you happen to know if they plan to lease in any of the DC-10's? If not, where did they obtain the pax aircraft? Thanks.