Rumour : Air Gambia

[Gunship]

Morning boys (and the odd girl)

Right those interested in the West African route :

Rumour has it that "Air Gambia" starts with the West Coast Route on Saturday with a 737.

Gambia - Conacry - FT - Lagos - Abidjan - Accra

Good luck to them - if true.

Cheers,

Gunsss

[TimS]

Hi Gunship,

1) I come under the first descripton

2) The only IATA two letter designator designated airline I can locate ex Gambia is Gambia International International Airlines (=GC) rather than Air Gambia.

3) Gambia International (who my company provided training for on the implementation of SITA DCS and SITA Gabriel Host Reservations some years ago) utilise the Gabriel reservations host - and this receives any schedules distributed by individual airlines through OAG.

Checking on Gabriel for schedules on these routes shows:

skbjlcky01oct
1 2U 111 3 BJLCKY 1300 1400 737 0
2 VR 5301 7 BJLDKR 1220 1300 DH3 0
VR 5722 DKRCKY 1820 1935 73A 0

>dxa/2u
2U ATLAS INTL HAVACILIK A.S.

>dxa/vr
VR * TRANSPORTES AEREOS DE CABO VERDE

skbjlfna01oct
1 2U 110 6 BJLFNA 0940 1045 737 0
2 B3 251 6 BJLFNA 1140 1250 737 0
3 B3 251 3 BJLFNA 1540 1650 737
4 LJ 721 5 BJLFNA 1930 2030 757 0

>dxa/b3
B3 BELLVIEW AIRLINES LTD.

>dxa/lj
LJ SIERRA NATIONAL AIRLINES

..... so either ......

A) it's not happening

B) they haven't got IATA designation and/or they haven't contracted a host reservations system and/or they don't have a two digit designator and are doomed as a result.



I agree with your earlier comment on your other post that the West Coast of Africa cries out for a good quality, professional and well run service and would make a fortune - however, the politics of operating/route approvals in the region will prevent this happening for the forseable future.

Brgds

TimS

[747CLASSIC]

Hey Gunship,

I believe your imformation is a little dated! I just got off the phone with the Gambian CAA and I was told that Air Gambia went out of business in 92 and there is no plans in the works to revive it.
You really should confirm your rumours from an additional source before publishing them.

[Gunship]

747 Classic mate : I pressume you missed the heading with the word "rumour" in it.

I know the previous company with that name debunked in the early 90's.

Just a rumour boet.


.......................................................... .........................................

Tx for an informative answer Tim.

I am at the local CAA offices tomorrow and will hear what the creaking floors say

[747CLASSIC]

Hi Gunship,

Sorry mate, looking back at my post I may have come down on you a bit hard.
I've got a couple of associates that have an operation planned to start in West Africa. They thought they were listening to the beat of the drums very carefully and when you came up with Air Gambia, they were completely blindsided. Their blood pressure rose 20 points and they got several dozen more gray hairs!
I hope can see where I was coming from.
If you are in Banjul in 10 days to 2weeks I plan on heading over that way. Would you be interested in hooking up for a cold one and a Cuban?

Classic

[Gunship]

Lo 747.

No problems mate.

Sent me a PM - think we are talking about the same thing.

Will pass you my e-mail address then.

Cheers,

Da Gunns

[747CLASSIC]

Hi Gunship,
Sent you a PM a couple of days ago. Have not heard a word.
Classic

[B Sousa]

747
Be patient, Guns has a tendancy to disappear for a while. If you really want him to respond. Start a thread on Free Tassies............

[TimS]

Based on a thread elsewhere on this site I think he is currently 'sunning' his not inconsiderable butt in these 'green and pleasant lands'.

TimS

[Gunship]

Ok boys and the odd girl ..

Da Guns is up and running and blazing

Although I had Broad Band in the hotel I had to catch up with 6 months of porn downloads

Seriously : Gents Muddy Island's beer is still fine (although nearly depleted in the Oval Area).

747 Will answer you back soonest - can not open my PM's this time of the day.

Here is the latest from today's newpsaper :

AFRIK AIRLINES ...your link along the WEST COAST

LOS-FNA 1000
FNA-BJL 1230
BJL-DKR 1415
DKR-FNA 1530
FNA-LOS 1730 land LOS 2045.

No dates / a/c types.
Tel / Fax [phone]

Hope it helps ..

[TimS]

Hi Guns,

Welcome back - you didn't wait for us to win the final as well then !!!

Just checked on Gabriel some of the schedules that you quote and no sign of Afrik Airlines ..........

>sklosfna
1 B3 250 6 LOSFNA 0700 0900 737 0 S 12JUN

2 B3 250 3 LOSFNA 1100 1300 737 0 S 02JUN

3 B3 252 1 LOSFNA 1100 1330 737 1 M 12JUL

4 B3 258 4 LOSFNA 1100 1340 737 1 M 15JUL

>skfnabjl
1 B3 250 6 FNAABJL 0945 1055 737 0 S 12JUN

2 2U 110 3 FNABJL 1105 1200 737 0 S 02JUN

3 B3 250 3 FNABJL 1345 1455 737 0 S 02JUN

4 LJ 720 1 FNABJL 2130 2230 757 0 07JUN

>dxa/b3
B3 BELLVIEW AIRLINES LTD.

>dxa/2u
2U ATLAS INTL HAVACILIK A.S.

>dxa/lj
LJ SIERRA NATIONAL AIRLINES


........ and can't encode 'Afrik Airlines':

exa/afrik airlines
G2 d AVIREX GABON
Y2 AFRICAN JOINT AIR SVCS DBA AIR ALLIANCE
FK AFRICA WEST
8U AFRIQIYAH AIRWAYS
X5 *d AFRIQUE AIRLINES S.A.
ML d AFRICAN TRANSPORT TRADING AND INVESTMENT CO. (ATTICO)
XU AFRICAN EXPRESS AIRWAYS (K) LTD.

....... so it appears that IATA don't know they exist - without systems/distribution they are doomed !!!

Brgds

TimS

[Gunship]

Hi Tim,

Good to hear from you.

Yeah congrats on a great win You should give the Windies a thrashing on Saturday.

I will try and find out more tomorrow re a/c type and start up time.

Brgds,

Da Gunsss

[flartnog]

Gambia

Looking forward to that L1011 that is on it's way to BJL. C5-WAL. Anyone know who owns the Lockheed?

[oneeyed]

Air Gambia

As usual, where there is smoke there is fire - at least that what people say. In the case of Air Gambia the rumours might well have been misinterpreted.
Reality is that Slok Air International (part of Slok Air Nigeria) has recently been designated a National Carrier of the Gambia. As their Operating License was revoked in Nigeria the company had to see what to do with their 10 !!! 737-200's
Looks like they are set to take off any day from now.

[Gunship]

SLOK AIR

After months of speculation SLOK AIR started yesterday, operating between Banjul and Freetown with "possible European routes " in the near future.

The inaugral flight started with a B732.

Chief Tony said 6 x B732's are available for these flights ...

[Alfred Kamara]

Gunss you spelling let's you down again - it should read thief tony

only the nigerian thief can start an airline that was defunct in nigeria

i see he gives discount of 10 US $ on his hover craft .. the same one the pilots (as they like to call themselves) could not land at Lungi 3 times in a row but crashing into the shed on the 4th attempt hahahahah

from diamond airlines (now defunct) to diamond airlines hovercraft (soon to be wrecked) to slok airlines ... business man of the year : only in africa !

[TimS]

Here's what is published by OAG for the route ....

skbjlfna
1 4X 101 /CYB 26 BJLFNA 0700 0800 M80 0 05OCT
QM
2 2U 110 /Y 6 BJLFNA 0940 1045 737 0 S 05OCT
3 B3 251 /CSK 6 BJLFNA 1140 1250 737 0 B 09OCT
VT
4 B3 251 /CSK 3 BJLFNA 1540 1650 737 0 S 06OCT
VT
5 LJ 721 CY 5 BJLFNA 1930 2030 757 0 05OCT

and a decode of the airlines listed .......

>dxa/4x
4X d AIR MERCURY (MERCURY AIR CARGO, INC.)
4X ATLANTIC EXPRESS AIRLINES
>dxa/2u
2U ATLAS INTL HAVACILIK A.S.
>dxa/b3
B3 BELLVIEW AIRLINES LTD.
>dxa/lj
LJ SIERRA NATIONAL AIRLINES
>

As I said before - without distribution systems (and the necessary IATA designator), all of which cost money, they are unlikely to 'cut the mustard'.

I am sorry to say that this looks like yet another badly funded and organised operation with little likelihood of success.

Brgds
TimS