Gabon Express was an

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

based in Libreville,

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

. It operated scheduled passenger services and passenger and cargo charters. It ceased operations in June 2004.

History

The airline was established in 1998 and started operations on 26 October 1998 between Libreville and

Port-Gentil Port-Gentil () or Mandji is the second-largest city of Gabon, and it is a leading seaport. It is the center of Gabon's petroleum and timber industries. The city is located on a delta island in the Ogooue delta with no bridges to the mainland. N ...

. The airline operated both Caravelle and HS 748 Aircraft. It grew to become the second largest airline in Gabon, operating 60 scheduled flights a week from Libreville. The airline's operations were suspended following the crash of one of its aircraft on 8 June 2004. Operations ceased on 15 June 2004. At the time the airline ceased operations, it was the only airline still operating Caravelle aircraft in scheduled passenger services.

Accidents and incidents

* On June 8, 2004, a Gabon Express flight using a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 Series 2A, departed from Libreville for a scheduled passenger flight to

Franceville Franceville is one of the four largest cities in Gabon, with a population of 110,568 at the 2013 census. It lies on the Mpassa River and at the end of the Trans-Gabon Railway and the N3 road. It grew from a village named Masuku when Pierre Savor ...

. Engine problems forced the crew to turn back for Libreville but the aircraft

crashed "Crashed" is the third U.S. rock Single (music), single, (the fifth overall), from the band Daughtry (band), Daughtry's debut album. It was released only to U.S. rock stations on September 5, 2007. Upon its release the song got adds at those stat ...

100 m offshore. Of the 30 people on board, 19 of them were killed. The Gabonese government proposed legal action against the company and banned it from operating, claiming it had failed to insure its aircraft.

Fleet

Over the years, Gabon Express operated the following aircraft types: * 3 –

Hawker Siddeley HS 748 The Hawker Siddeley HS 748 is a medium-sized turboprop airliner originally designed and initially produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Avro. It was the last aircraft to be developed by Avro prior to its absorption by Hawker Siddeley ...

* 2 –

Grumman Gulfstream I The Grumman Gulfstream I (company designation G-159) is a twin-turboprop business aircraft. It first flew on August 14, 1958. Design and development After first rejecting an idea to develop the Grumman Widgeon as an executive transport, the comp ...

* 2 – Sud Aviation Caravelle * 1 –

Fokker F27 The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner developed and manufactured by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It is the most numerous post-war aircraft manufactured in the Netherlands; the F27 was also one of the most successful Europe ...

* 1 –

NAMC YS-11 The NAMC YS-11 is a turboprop airliner designed and built by the Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (NAMC), a Japanese consortium. It was the only post-war airliner to be wholly designed and manufactured in Japan until the development of t ...

References

External links

Gabon Express official website
at the

Internet Archive Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

{{Airlines of Gabon Defunct airlines of Gabon Airlines established in 1998 Airlines disestablished in 2004 Companies based in Libreville Gabonese companies established in 1998