For the umpteenth time, the Cameroon Airlines Corporation, is currently putting in place strategies to get new planes that might help revamp the company and get it back on track.

The company which has only five planes, is in the process of acquiring new generation planes in partnership with America’s Boeing Company.

According to Ernest Dikoum, the Director General of Cameroon Airlines Corporation, the priority of the company is to give priority to local and sub continental flights. Ernest Dikoum was speaking to reporters at a press conference in Yaounde in the presence of the minister of transport. He said strict measures will be put in place to end the issuance of free tickets, maintaining that even government officials will have to pay flight tickets.

For his part, Michael Bangue-Tandet ,sales director at Boeing, says in the next seven years, the company will acquire twelve new passenger planes and a cargo plane and two turbo propellers 777 200 ER as temporal measures while expecting the Boeing 787 in the course of the third and fourth year. Meanwhile, Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o, noted that one of the two Dreamliners will be available by December 2018, ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON 2019. Going by the new strategic setup, Camair-Co will fly to 23 destinations including eight local flights to Bafoussam, Bamenda, Yaoundé, Douala, Bertoua, Ngaoundéré, Maroua, and Garoua. The company has also scheduled regular flights to four inter-continental airports including Bruxelles, Paris, Washington, and London. At the regional level, eleven destinations have been scheduled: Abidjan, Bamako, Bangui, Cotonou, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Libreville, Ndjamena and Lagos. The new plan also lays emphasis on the acquisition of new air carriers and the diversification of destinations. In line with the plan,  Camair-Co will purchase a 737 cargo plane in the first year while the MA60, the 737 and the SF will be replaced in five years by new generation planes.

It was also revealed that turbo propellers Q400 manufactured by “Bombardier” will be added in the course of the year while the 737 800 will be developed to boost regional flights. Meantime, the 767, christened the Dja will be revised and used for support missions while the 787 will be returned to their owners after two to three years of exploitation.

Camair-Co’s facelift operation is estimated at F CFA 60 Billion F CFA of which F CFA 30 Billion has already been raised by a consortium of banks led by Ecobank. Minister Mebe Ngo said the remaining F CFA 30 Billion will be provided by the government of Cameroon.

The Transport boss commended the management team of Camair-Co for raising the punctuality of flights by the national carrier to 76% and performing 72 domestic flights per week.
He says this is proof of management’s ability to efficiently carryout the renovation of the company.