Air Afrique was owned by eleven African states and flew for 41 years. Why shared ownership is hard.
Established in 1961 as the carrier for francophone West and Central Africa, Air Afrique declined from the 1980s and was liquidated in early 2002.
Air Afrique was a pan-African airline, headquartered in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and created because many newly independent francophone countries could not build and maintain national airlines of their own. The Treaty of Yaoundé, signed on 28 March 1961, founded it as a joint venture between Air France and UAT, with 17 percent each, and eleven countries holding the remaining 66 percent. They were Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Mauritania, Niger, the Republic of the Congo and Senegal.
Early years
It started operations on 1 August 1961 with 12 leased DC-4 aircraft, serving internal routes. Léopoldine Doualla-Bell Smith, then the only qualified African person in French aviation, became the first employee. Even after a steady decline began in the early 1980s, it was still considered the most reputable carrier in West Africa and one of Africa’s top five.
Liquidation
Mismanagement and the downturn in aviation after the attacks of 11 September 2001 led to a crisis that ended in the airline’s liquidation in early 2002. Plans for a successor never materialised, and it was followed by the short-lived Afrinat International Airlines.
Lessons
- Shared ownership needs sharp governance. With eleven governments and two airlines in the cap table, decisions are slow.
- Old strengths do not guarantee a future. Reputation persisted for years after the decline began.
- External shocks expose weak balance sheets. The downturn after 2001 hit an airline already in difficulty.