Emirates and AWA Announce Agreement – Opens Up West Africa

Emirates and AWA (Africa World Airlines) announced an agreement that will improve Emirates’ network in West Africa. This will utilize AWA’s existing services from Accra, Ghana.

Emirates and AWA Agreement

AWA is a Ghanaian airline with Accra (capital of Ghana) as its hub. It has a small fleet of 9 regional aircraft. The connections are concentrated in West Africa – Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale (Ghana), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Abuja, Lagos (Nigeria) and Monrovia (Liberia). Further, AWA will be starting services to Cote D’Ivoire soon.

The agreement covers destinations in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Already, Emirates has direct flights to Nigeria.

Under the agreement, Emirates’ customers can connect from Accra onto AWA flights to Kumasi, Tamale, Takoradi, Monrovia and Freetown from May 2019. At present, Emirates has 7x weekly flights to Accra. From June 2019, the frequency will be increased to 11x weekly.

Note that this is a one-way agreement to enhance Emirates’ connectivity rather than a code-share agreement.

Bottomline

It is interesting times for airlines in Africa. There are at least 4 native airlines who are vying for pan-Africa leadership. Emirates, as you would expect, has the most number of connections to Africa from a non-native airline. The alliance with AWA strengthens the connectivity further, particularly in West Africa.