Air Côte d'Ivoire (HF, Abidjan) has received XAF14 billion CFA francs (USD24 million) from the Ivorian government to keep it operating as domestic and international flights resume, CEO René Decurey told Reuters in an interview.
Domestic flights resumed on June 26 after a three-month suspension, and Côte d'Ivoire's majority state-owned flag carrier plans to restart international flights on July 1, the Ivorian government announced last week.
Air Côte d'Ivoire will take delivery of a new A320-200neo in October, which will be the 11th aircraft in its fleet, Decurey said in the interview.
"We think that if we can start [regional flights] in the month of July, we will, if everything goes well, recover 80% of our passengers by the end of the year," he said.
Air Côte d'Ivoire carried more than 750,000 passengers in 2019. It resumed domestic operations linking Abidjan with Korhogo, San Pedro, CI, Man, CI, Bouaké, and Odienné from June 26, initially to both Korhogo and San Pedro 3x weekly and the rest 2x weekly using its fleet of Dash 8-400s.
Besides its four Dash 8s, the carrier also operates four A319-100s and two A320-200, according to the ch-aviation fleets module. It had been expecting delivery of its first two neo aircraft, an A319-100neo and the A320neo, from the second quarter of 2020.
As previously reported, on April 2, soon after the airline halted all of its flights, Ivorian transport minister Amadou Koné assured Africa Radio that "the state will supply the means to support Air Côte d'Ivoire."
