Africa One was a privately owned pan-African airline that was financed by Boeing Capital Corporation. It was initially based in

Entebbe Entebbe is a city in Central Uganda. Located on a Lake Victoria peninsula, approximately southwest of the Ugandan capital city, Kampala. Entebbe was once the seat of government for the Protectorate of Uganda prior to independence, in 1962. The c ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, with aircraft

wet lease Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide tempora ...

d from Africa One Services, registered in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Africa One Congo, although having a very similar name, was not related to the company and the company was not the operator of the

An-26 The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.Gordon, Yefim. Komissarov, Dmitry & Sergey. "Antonov's Turboprop Twins ...

that crashed in the DRC in 2007. Africa One operated in years 2002–2009.

History

AfricaOne was the brainchild of Zimbabwe born Charles Heather whereby countries within the continent of Africa would pool their air transport markets sharing the risk and rewards between shareholders from different regions and providing innovative benefits for all stakeholders. The airline ceased operations after crucial flight rights were withdrawn, which was seen by some commentators at the time as a result of dirty tricks campaign undertaken by certain shareholders. The aircraft were provided by Ireland registered AfricaOne Services to the airline on an ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) basis. UK based businessman and

DAS Air Cargo DAS Air Cargo was a Ugandan cargo airline based at Entebbe as Dairoo Air Services. It operated all-cargo services between Europe and 20 cities throughout Africa, the Middle East and the Far East. Entebbe was a major hub for business in east and s ...

Executive Director Charles Heather held the role of AfricaOne Services while DAS Air Cargo chairman Capt Joe Roy became chairman of AfricaOne Holdings. Both were shareholders in the holding company. Chief Financial Officer, David Fisher speaking out regarding the concept of Irish Services company of AfricaOne said: "The AfricaOne concept is a great concept where you have a service company providing aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance to all the African operators very cost effectively. In order for it to succeed it needs all the African shareholders to be fully committed to the commercial, operational and equity plans of the airline.

Destinations

Africa One initially was announced 29 April 2002 using

DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

s to serve Entebbe,

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

Freetown, Sierra Leone Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

, and

Banjul Banjul (,"Banjul"
(US) and ), officially the City of Ba ...

Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

with bi-weekly service from those cities to London

Gatwick Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Hea ...

and

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

DC-10 The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 was intended to succeed the DC-8 for long-range flights. It first flew on August 29, 1970; it was introduced on August 5, 1971, ...

Fleet

Africa One used

A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

and

on their operations

References

Defunct airlines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Airlines established in 2002 2002 establishments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Airlines disestablished in 2009 2009 disestablishments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{DRCongo-stub

History

Destinations

Fleet

Further reading

References