ASKY Route Network, June 2016

As mentioned in the previous post, the Accra-Monrovia sector was once the third-busiest route pair in West and Central Africa. Lomé-based ASKY Airlines for a time plied the corridor, for a time even acting as the sole carrier to Monrovia's secondary, inner-city airfield, Spriggs-Payne, but has since completely withdrawn from serving Liberia. 

The above route map, from mid-2016, shows Liberia and Sierra Leone as a gap in the carrier's extensive West African coverage, spinning out from Togo with a number of secondary links between regional capitals such as Niamey, Abuja, Libreville and Conakry in particular but also reaching under-served cities like Bangui and Bissau. 

Overlaid with ASKY's web are the bright green long-haul connections of parent company Ethiopian Airlines: to Addis Ababa, New York, and São Paulo. The Brazilian route, unfortunately, did not last (the airline switched the GRU non-stop to its Addis Ababa hub this year), but Ethiopian continues to invest in the ASKY project—and the Togolese government has responded with the opening of an enormous new terminal at Tokion in April of 2016. Since this time, Ethiopian has been able to sustain the transatlantic service to Newark, making tiny Lomé one of the just four West African airports with non-stop service to the United States. 

ASKY Airlines Network, March/April 2014 (Western Portion)

A continuation of the previous post, looking westward from Lomé, ASKY competes on the regular routes between Abidjan, Bamako, Ouagadougou, Dakar, and Conakry, while also offering stand-alone services such as the very rare Monrovia (Spriggs Payne)-Bissau service, which unfortunately was realigned to link to Conakry, one of a number of route realignments announced shortly after this issue of the magazine came out.

Speaking of Lusophone links, as with the previous post, the map disproportionately displays the distant destinations of mother-carrier Ethiopian Airlines, here advertising the relatively new Lomé-Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo services. Unfortunately, the Rio portion of this operation was unsuccessful, even in the midst of the World Cup and the imminent Olympics, Ethiopian dropped Galeão airport from its Brazilian service less than a month after this publication.

ASKY Airlines Network: March/April 2014 (Eastern portion)

A double-page spread at the back of ASKY Airlines' in-flight magazine from earlier this year: while the airline's primary hub is in Lomé and its strongest presence is across the west coast, the carrier is firmly established into the Congo basin, stretching as far south as Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire and Kinshasa. There is actually quite an operation out of Libreville, it seems, with links to Lagos and what is apparently the only connection to Yaoundé (in a now-typical network model; few ASKY destinations are linked to only one other city). 

The sole connection to Bangui appears to be Douala, which is partially plunged into the spine of the magazine, as is Abuja, which seems to connect up to N'Djamena, the airline's northeasternmost city, aside from the shamrock-green codeshare flight to the superhub of its parent company, Ethiopian: Addis Ababa appears on the map at upper right, somewhere in distant Chad, if the map were to scale. 

The next post features the western portion of the map. 

ASKY Airlines Schedule, April 2013

The complete network schedule for ASKY Airlines from this spring, helpfully published in their in-flight magazine, detailing their weekly timetable for flights between twenty cities in West and Central Africa, from Banjul to Bamako to Brazzaville.

Ethiopian Airlines Addis Ababa-Lomé-Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo, July 2013

While no Brazilian carrier currently serves West Africa, as of July of this year the South American cone and the Western coast of Africa are connected via one of the world's more unusual routes. Ethiopian Airlines connected a fifth continent to its 55-year old network when a brand-new B787 Dreamliner took flight from tiny Lomé, Togo to Rio de Janeiro, with a continuing service to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Lome is also the home base for Ethiopian-affiliated super-regional ASKY Airlines. The Dreamliner apparently also serves the transcontinental Lomé-Addis Ababa section; ET506/507 spans half the globe thrice-weekly.

ASKY Airlines: 2 flights per week Lomé-Bissau, September 2013

Starting mid-September, fast-growing regional airline ASKY will begin serving tiny Bissau from its increasingly-busy hub in Lomé, Togo. While the airline's own website gives no details or schedules, and isn't not even equipped to sell tickets on the routes, the helpful website Routes online reports that the twice-weekly service will be a biweekly extension of the existing Lome-Accra-Monrovia Spriggs Payne route. 

Departures from Abidjan Port-Bouet Airport, 23 April 2013

The daily block of departures from Abidjan's Felix Houphouët-Boigny/Port Bouet International Airport on 23 April 2013 reveals a slate of recent developments in tropical African aviation. Especially new local entrant Air Côte D'Ivoire, recently risen from the ashes of the older Air Ivoire, providing three flights across the francophone region. Its first flight were in December 2012 and this post marks its first appearance on Timetablist.

Another is the young Senegal Airlines, similarly a quick replacement for defunct Air Senegal International, which in this case is heading eastward to other French-speaking centers in Togo and Cameroon. Lastly, Mauritania Airlines International, set up in 2010 to replace defunct Mauritania Airways (which was itself a second-try at the failed Air Mauritanie), is heading back to its capital, Nouakchott, via Bamako, Mali.

Regional growth carrier ASKY has two flights: to its hub at Lomé and to Conakry, while Air Burkina, one of the few West African airlines that has lasted more than a few years, links Burkina Faso's secondary city, Bobo Dioulasso.

Non-regional airlines make an appearance, providing the only links with non-French-speaking cities: Emirates offers the only wide-body on the day's schedule, its quad-engined A340s hopping next door to Accra before heading home to Dubai; Ethiopian Airlines ET916 is a next-gen B737 that stops in Cotonou before returning to its base at Addis Ababa's Bole Airport after a long journey from one side of the continent to the other.

Accra Kotoka Airport: Tuesday Midday Departures, November 2011

The middle of Tuesday last November at Accra's Kotoka International Airport shows several various West African connections, including ASKY to Lomé, Air Nigeria to Monrovia, Kenya Airways to Freetown (originating in Nairobi), Emirates to Abidjan (a continuation from Dubai), and United Air Lines to Lagos (having started in Washington). ASKY flies to Freetown and Banjul at mid-afternoon, after Egyptair's departure for Cairo.

Accra Airport, Monday Departures, November 2011

The flight schedule for Accra's Kotoka International Airport from the Ghana Airports Authority for a typical Monday in November 2011 shows 20 departures in a 12 hour period. High-frequency routes for West Africa are those that depart more than once a day, and in this case hops from Accra to Abidjan, Abuja, Monrovia, and above all Lagos make the list, served by regional airlines such as Arik Air and Air Ivoire as well as global carriers looping the two cities into one flight schedule, such as United, Emirates and Egyptair, which turns around for Cairo in the early afternoon.

Other West African connections include Air Burkina to Ouagadougou, ASKY to Freetown, Lomé, and Banjul. At ten minutes to nine, a Virgin Atlantic A340 leaves for London Heathrow; a Delta B767-300 departs for New York JFK fifty minutes later.

The following post continues the analysis of this timetable. 

Accra Kotoka International Airport Departure Board, November 12, 2011

The midday line-up of flights out of Kotoka Airport in Accra, Ghana on Sunday, 12 November 2011.

The roster is mostly regional, with Air Nigeria departing for Monrovia (with a later link to Lagos), followed by ASKY quickly jumping to its main base at Lomé (also hopping to Abidjan several hours later). Kenya Airways, on a continuation of its Nairobi service, also flies to Robertsfield, Kotoka's third-busiest bridge, while Arik Air is the other airline to land at Lagos from Accra (the busiest route from Accra and in all of West Africa). Air Burkina has an evening flight northward to Ouagadougou.

The remaining flights stretch beyond the immediate subregion: Egyptair to Cairo and MEA's evening flight to Beirut are testament to the important commercial links to the Near East, while Emirates continuation of its Dubai-Accra service flows on to Abidjan at five minutes to 2PM.

At the noon hour, an Ethiopian Airlines departure for Addis Ababa is proceeded by United Airlines transatlantic run to Washington Dulles - the airline's first African destination, which started in 2010 and sadly is scheduled to end next month.

ASKY Airlines network, December 2011

A different ASKY than from a year previous: service to Banjul, Dakar and Pointe-Noire are gone, as is the underlying geography of the Gulf of Guinea. Abuja and Yaounde have been added, with Libreville beginning to seem like a focus city.

Lome-based ASKY seems to have failed at bridging the chessboard of Anglo- and Francophone capitals of West Africa, as one of the only English-speaking link is the familiar Accra-Monrovia-Freetown run, which no longer reaches up the coast to Cap Vert. A weekly flight from Monrovia to Bamako is also now absent.

ASKY Airlines: Service to and from Monrovia, Spring 2011

The recent post about Sierra Leone's new airline, Fly 6ix, discussed the services out of Monrovia's secondary airport, Spriggs-Payne Airfield. Here is the horaires of Lomé-based ASKY Airlines, a division of Ethiopian Airlines, in and out of Spriggs-Payne for this spring.

The table shows non-stops to Accra and Bamako three times weekly; the Bamako service apparently an alternate to Abidjan, which is slowly re-opening given the recent conflict there. The Accra service continues on to ASKY's hub in Togo, from whence it connects across western Africa, from Banjul to Brazzaville, and more globally with via Ethiopian's mainline network.

ASKY Airlines network, October 2010

Fast-growing regional carrier ASKY Airlines is based (somewhat surprisingly) in Lomé, Togo. The subsidiary of also-burgeoning Ethiopian Airlines has already established itself as a major West African airline, with useful connections within and between both Anglophone and Francophone cities.