Congo-Brazzaville’s national airline ECAir plans to launch a new route to Dakar, Senegal in a bid to expand its services in West Africa
The new Brazzaville-Dakar route via Bamako, Mali will begin on 22 March 2015, and will be functional thrice a week, stated ECAir officials. Bamako and Dakar are major West African hubs for the airline, and the new route is expected to improve the level of cooperation between Congo-Brazzaville, Mali, Senegal and the rest of the West African belt.
Fatima Beyina-Moussa, managing director of ECAir, said, “The inauguration of two new flight routes to Bamako and Dakar, just a few weeks after the inauguration of Libreville as a destination and the establishment of a daily flight between Brazzaville-Paris and Brazzaville-Dubai, will see us strengthen our presence on the continent. This year, within the scope of expanding our network and fleet, we are aiming to transform the Maya-Maya Airport into a real Central African hub by offering passengers a number of rotations and a first-class service.”
Flights to Bamako and Dakar will be operated by the Boeing 757-200 and will have a capacity of 148 seats (16 in business class and 132 in economy) until 1 June 2015, following which a Boeing 737-700 (with 12 seats in business class and 112 seats in economy) will operate on the route.
ECAir is functional in Cotonou (Benin), Douala (Cameroon), Libreville (Gabon) and Kinshasa (DR Congo) as part of its regional network.