Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation (CAA; African Aviation Company), renamed FlyCAA in 2013, is a regional airline from the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, based at

N'djili Airport N'djili Airport (french: Aéroport de N'djili ), also known as N'Djili International Airport and Kinshasa International Airport, serves the city of Kinshasa and is the largest of the four international airports in the Democratic Republic of th ...

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of ...

. It offers an extensive network of domestic scheduled passenger flights, as well as cargo flights. Due to safety and security concerns, CAA has been included in the

list of air carriers banned in the European Union The European Union (EU) publishes a list of air carriers that are banned from entering the airspace of any of its member states, usually for failing to meet EU regulatory oversight standards. The first version of the list was published in 2006, ...

, along with many other airlines from the Congo.

History

Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation was founded in 1991 and started operations on 26 December 1992. In 2013 merged with

FlyCongo FlyCongo was an airline based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was formed due to the suspension of Hewa Bora Airways after a series of fatal accidents. The new airline aimed to show a huge improvement in air safety in the Democratic Rep ...

and formed FlyCAA. In January 2016, the airline terminated their only international route to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

after failing to receive renewed traffic rights. In 2020, the airline acquired an

Airbus A330-200 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A3 ...

with the stated intention of flying to

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, which under current European Union restrictions would require CAA to operate the service using foreign registration and crew.

Destinations

According to the August 2013 timetable, CAA operates scheduled flights to the following destinations:

Fleet

Current fleet

The FlyCAA fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of August 2019):

Former fleet

Over the years, the following aircraft types were operated: A

Douglas DC-8 The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company. After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in July ...

had been purchased by CAA and painted in its colors but was never delivered and eventually scrapped at

Johannesburg International Airport O. R. Tambo International Airport is an international airport situated in Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. It serves as the primary airport for domestic and international travel to/from South Africa and since 2020, it is Africa's second ...

Accidents and incidents

The only fatal accident involving an aircraft of Compagnie d'Aviation Africaine occurred on 4 March 2013, when a

Fokker 50 The Fokker 50 is a turboprop-powered airliner, designed as an improved version of the successful Fokker F27 Friendship. The Fokker 60 is a stretched freighter version of the Fokker 50. Both aircraft were manufactured and supported by Dutch airc ...

( registered 9Q-CBD) crashed near

Goma International Airport Goma International Airport is an airport serving Goma, a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. History Initially built with a paved 3000 m runway and a large terminal and apron, the airport has not recovered from the 2 ...

. Of the nine people who had been on the flight from

Lodja Lodja is a remote town in the Sankuru (formerly Kasaï-Oriental) province in central Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is serviced by the Lodja Airport which is about from town. Lodja is a hub for both rice production in the province and dia ...

, six were killed. There were however a number of non-fatal incidents which resulted in CAA aircraft being damaged beyond repair: * On 1 April 1997, a

Convair CV-580 Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee, was an American aircraft manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft. In 1953, i ...

(registered 9Q-CRU) was destroyed at Tshikapa Airport when it overshot the runway and hit an embankment following a failed take-off abortion. There were fourteen occupants on board the scheduled flight to

Mbuji-Mayi Mbuji-Mayi or Mbujimayi (formerly Bakwanga) is a city and the capital of Kasai-Oriental Province in the south-central Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the second largest city in the country, following the capital Kinshasa but ahead of Lubumba ...

. * On 18 November 1999, another CV-580 (registered 9Q-CEJ) had to be written off following an off-airport emergency landing near

Tshikapa Tshikapa is the capital city of Kasai Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located north of the Angolan border and west of Kananga at the confluence of the Tshikapa and Kasai rivers. According to records published by the ...

due to an engine failure that had been encountered shortly into the flight to

Kananga Kananga, formerly known as Luluabourg or Luluaburg, is the capital city of the Kasai-Central Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was the capital of the former Kasaï-Occidental Province. It is the fourth most populous urban a ...

. * On 19 November 2009, Flight 3711 from

overran the runway upon landing at Goma Airport. Of the 117 occupants on board the aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 registered 9Q-CAB, around 20 were injured. * On 2 January 2010, a cargo-configured

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller air ...

(registered 9Q-CAA) veered off the runway during an emergency landing attempt in heavy rain at

. Previously, the pilots had reported a loss of hydraulic pressure.

References

External links

Official website
{{Airlines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Airlines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Airlines established in 1993 Airlines banned in the European Union Companies based in Kinshasa