At a meeting of Gabon’s council of ministers on February 7, the transitional government announced the creation of a new state-owned company under the country’s Ministry of Economy called Fly Air Gabon Holding, which it abbreviated as FLAGH. With it, the government intends to buy shareholdings in local or foreign carriers.
Chaired by Gabon’s military leader and interim president, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, who was installed after a coup d'état last August, the meeting at the Presidential Palace in Libreville declared that the main purpose of this company “is to acquire stakes, in whatever form, in any Gabonese or foreign companies whose activity is linked to the field of transport,” a statement said.
Its purpose is also “the management, control, and development of interests acquired in all countries, particularly in states that are party to the OHADA treaties, and particularly in the Gabonese Republic.” OHADA is the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa, an intergovernmental body for legal integration that was established by a treaty in 1993, revised in Québec in 2008.
The government stressed in its communiqué that FLAGH “enjoys administrative and financial management autonomy” and that it had appointed one Francis Ledjoungou as chairman of the board of directors and Binta Mandji Lespinas, who worked as an account manager and representative for Air France (AF, Paris CDG) in Gabon for around 20 years, as general director.
The move comes after Oligui revealed in a New Year message to the people of Gabon that the government was looking at founding a new national carrier and that work on a feasibility study for the project was continuing. He declared that “the take-off we want for our country requires us to create a new national airline.”
