Mauritania Airlines Network, March 2017

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. 

Air Mauritanie: Systemwide Network, 2002

Continuing with those national carriers which sprang up in the wake of the Air Afrique collapse, here is a combination timetable and route map of Air Mauritanie, the flag carrier of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

This 2002 snapshot shows a dense domestic network, as the vast, unforgiving Mauritanian terrain can most efficiently be transversed by air. This was the original purpose of the airline, which was founded in 1962, about the same time as Air Afrique itself, which was concerned with external destinations.

The Nouakchott-Paris route is a point of pride, and the Nouadhibou-Las Palmas route is interesting, perhaps made viable by fishing and shipping industries. Air Mauritanie also tried to take slices of the more lucrative Dakar-Bamako-Abidjan triangle (the Francophone West Africa equivalent of Dakar-Bamako-Abidjan) with an extension to Cotonou.

Unfortunately, Air Mauritanie, like Air Afrique before it, did not last, folding in 2007. Furthermore, its successor, Mauritanian Airways, also proved unviable, particularly after being black-listed from EU airspace in the Fall of 2010. A third iteration of a national airline, Mauritania Airlines International, is currently operating.

This has been graciously lent to Timetablist from the incredible website Timetable Images;this particular gem is part of the collection of Arthur Na, via Timetable Images founder David Zekria.