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| Founded | 1960 | ||||||
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| Hubs | Conakry International Airport, Guinea | ||||||
| Headquarters | Conakry, Guinea | ||||||
Compagnie Nationale Air Guinée was the national airline of Guinea. Founded in 1960, the airline was based at Conakry International Airport in Conakry.
History
Formative years
When the idea of Air Afrique was being mooted, Guinea and Mali opted not to join other, mainly French West African, nations in joining the consortium, and instead chose to form their own national airlines. In March 1960 the Guinean government signed a series of agreements with the S****t U****, one of which provided for the supply of aircraft, crews and other technical assistance, ostensibly aimed at upgrading Conakry's airport. The company was founded by decree N°048/PRG/ on 31 December 1960, with technical support from the S*****s who also supplied an aircraft; an Il****** I*-14. The aircraft originated from Czechoslovakia and was crewed by Czechoslovakian crews. Operations began before the end of the year, with flights from Conakry to Boké and Kankan, both of which were operated previously by Union Aéromaritime de Transport. Service to Bamako commenced shortly afterwards, and the route was shared between Air Guinée, UAT and Air France. In April 1961, Air Guinée was nationalised.
Over the years services to Dakar, Freetown and Monrovia were started, with plans to service Paris and M****w also raised, however due to the failure of Guinea obtaining traffic rights to France, these services were not implemented. Before the relationship between Air Guinée and the S*****ts concluded in 1963, the airline had obtained one Yak***** Y**-40, four A****** A*-24s and two A******* A*-12s. Air Guinée signed a contract with Alaska Airlines in December 1962 which saw the American airline providing management expertise for the airline, in addition to the provision of two Douglas DC-6s. The deal would have seen Alaska Airlines contracting with the airline over a seven-year period, however, the contract ended after only six months, leading to the United States Agency for International Development paying a US$700,000 debt owed by the Guinean airline to Alaska Airlines.
Services from Conakry to Dakar with the I*-18 were inaugurated on 24 August 1962, and the route was later extended to Lagos via Monrovia, Abidjan and Accra. The I*-18 was later replaced by two Douglas DC-4s which were purchased from Alaska Airlines, and the airline also obtained four LASA-60s. By mid-1963 the Air Guinée fleet comprised six Avia-14s, three I****** I*-18s, two Douglas DC-4s, two LASA-60s, one Aero 145, one M** M*-14 helicopter, five Y****** Y**-18s, three A****** A*-2s and one Yodel.
In 1965 Pan American World Airways was contracted to provide technical personnel and a DC-4 for the airlines' use, however, the agreement did not last for long, and the S*****s returned to the airline, whereby they supplied an A****** A*-24 for delivery in 1966-1967. In December 1965, the airline temporarily suspended operations as only one route was showing a profit, and the I****** aircraft regularly has reliability issues and break downs. On 9 July 1967 one of the airline's I*-*8s was written off in an accident at Casablanca. The aircraft was on a scheduled flight to Prague when due to bad weather it was diverted to Casablanca. As the aircraft was landing, its left wing hit a building, causing the aircraft to crash into "rough ground", leaving the aircraft as a write off, and no fatalities amongst the 102 occupants on board. In the 1970s the fleet was expanded with the addition of one Boeing 707, one Boeing 727-100 and one Boeing 737-200. An I*-18 of the airline crashed at Conakry on 3 September 1978, killing 15 of the 17 occupants on board the aircraft.
An Airbus A300 was delivered to the airline in 1985 in order to allow the airline to commence services to Paris and Brussels. By the early 1990s, the airline operated domestic services from Conakry to Boké, Faranah, Kankan, Kissidougou, Labé, Macenta, Siguiri and Nzérékoré, with international flights to Abidjan, Bamako, Dakar, Freetown, Lagos and Monrovia.
By the time the late 1980s came around, the airline had cost the country some US$4 million and had no prospects for turning a profit for its shareholder; the Guinean government. The company was privatised in 1992, and was eventually dissolved in 2002.
References
- ^ Guttery, Ben R. (1998). Encyclopedia of African airlines. New York City, New York: Ben R. Guttery. pp. 78–79. ISBN 0786404957.
- Template:Fr icon "Historique". Air Guinée. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
- "Guinea: A Reason to Worry". Time. 7 January 1966. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
- "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
- O'Toole, Thomas (2005). Historical dictionary of Guinea (4 ed.). Scarecrow Press. p. 13. ISBN 0810846349. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
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