Coming off of Air Afrique Week, the Timetablist back-catalogue is overflowing with examples of the post-Air Afrique era in Francophone West Africa.
Despite the ever-present turmoil of West Africa's airlines—the sad, sudden end of Air Mali in the throes of conflict, then the demise of Gambia Bird during the Ebola crisis, followed by the failure just last year of the once-promising Senegal Airlines venture, and most recently the alarming deterioration of Nigeria's premier carrier, Arik Air—somehow sparsely populated, isolated Mauritania has been able to keep its flag carrier, Mauritania Airlines International, in the skies.
Based at Nouakchott's brand-new Outoumsy International Airport, the state carrier has a small fleet of late-model B737-700s linking to nearby capitals. The route map here, taking up a window of the airline's ticket office in the Plateau business district of Dakar recently, shows a farther reach, such as dedicated routes to Cotonou and Brazzaville, which have, curiously, been crossed out from the map, while Abidjan was crossed out, perhaps by mistake, and then scribbled back in. The routes are not necessarily reflective of actual operations as the Bamako and Conakry flights are normally linked via Dakar, for example.
What remains on the map, although, is not a reality, is the route shown to Paris at the top of the dial, without a shape for France, only existed for about two years. Despite this inconsistency, Mauritania Airlines does reach the European Union by way of its Nouakchott—Nouadhibou—Las Palmas service, in the nearby Canary Islands. Zoueratt is shown as the only other domestic route of this "international" airline.
