Africa World Airlines informations and photos

Africa World Airlines Limited (AWA) is a Ghanaian airline company that was incorporated in 2010 and commenced flights in 2012. It has its head office in Airport City Accra, and its main hub at Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

It is the largest airline in Ghana with over 600,000 passengers transported in 2019, accounting for 68% of domestic passengers and 20% of all air passengers in the country. The airline has been consistently profitable since 2014.

AWA is a joint venture between Ghanaian shareholders SAS Finance Group and SSNIT, with minority shareholdings also by both HNA Group and China-Africa Development Fund via Zhongjia Investments of China.

AWA was born as the brainchild of noted Ghanaian investment banker and traditional leader Togbe Afede XIV. The airline received its Air Carrier License from Ghana Civil Aviation Authority on 4 March 2011. After securing funding and partnership for the project, the initial management team led by CEO Zhang Jiuhua and COO Sean Mendis proceeded with the technical certification of the airline. AWA took delivery of its first Embraer 145 aircraft in August 2012, immediately followed by a second aircraft in September 2012. It received its Air Operator Certificate on 21 September 2012 and commenced flight operations that same day with daily services between Accra and Kumasi. Flights to Tamale commenced later that year. By 2013, Zhang had been replaced by Michael Cheng Luo as CEO, and Mendis was replaced as COO by Apiigy Afenu. A third Embraer 145 was delivered in November 2013 as the airline increased frequencies on the domestic routes.

In December 2013, AWA launched its first international route connecting Accra with Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos. Services to its fourth domestic destination of Takoradi commenced in May 2015. Plans for expansion of regional routes were temporarily put on hold due to the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, but the airline nonetheless recorded its first annual profits in 2014. The airline continued to expand its domestic market share during this period, and focussed on training Ghanaian staff in technical roles such as pilots and engineers to reduce dependence on expatriates. In May 2015, AWA successfully completed its first IOSA audit, making it only the second airline in Ghana to achieve this international safety standard. In October 2015, Samuel Thompson took over from Apiigy Afenu as COO.

AWA began the next phase of its expansion in December 2016, with the delivery of its fourth Embraer 145 aircraft. In 2017, John Xiaoyi Quan, former Managing Director of Air Guilin in China, took over as CEO. Two additional aircraft were also delivered in 2017 taking the fleet up to six. New services to Abuja and Monrovia were launched. AWA became a full member of IATA in 2017, following the completion of its second IOSA audit. The airline is the only IATA member airline in Ghana. In 2018, Sean Mendis returned as COO after 6 years away. The airline launched flights to Freetown in 2018, Wa in 2019, and Abidjan in 2020. Michael Cheng Luo also returned as CEO in 2019 and the airline took delivery of its seventh and eight aircraft in 2018 and 2019 respectively. The airline was the largest international carrier operating to Nigeria by 2019 with 200 monthly frequencies to both Lagos and Abuja. AWA consolidated its position as the premier airline in Anglophone West Africa with its dominance of the Nigerian regional travel market, and its numerous partnerships with international airlines.

AWA temporarily suspended passenger operations on 30 March 2020 due to the spread of COVID-19 in Ghana. Domestic passenger operations resumed on 1 May 2020 under enhanced sanitary protocols, including disinfection of the aircraft after each flight. The airline continued to operate humanitarian flights to repatriate Ghanaians stranded abroad during the period of closed borders, and began a phased resumption of international flights from September 2020. Domestic traffic had recovered to 2019 levels by the end of 2020. AWA received the second highest score among all African airlines for their COVID-19 safety protocols as assessed by independent watchdog Safe Travel Barometer. In 2021, AWA once again transported over 600,000 passengers, thus almost matching the record traffic levels seen in 2019.

The Africa World Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of March 2021):

Africa World Airlines took delivery on 30 August 2012 of its first Embraer 145 aircraft that was used to operate domestic routes. A second aircraft was delivered on 8 September 2012. The airline added a third aircraft in 2013 and a further five aircraft between 2016 and 2019. All these aircraft were previously operated by Tianjin Airlines which is a sister company within the HNA Group. AWA is the largest operator of the Embraer 145 type in the Middle East and Africa region.

Africa World Airlines has stated that it intends to introduce two additional ERJ-145s in 2021, as well as a larger capacity aircraft type at the appropriate time to expand its regional routes. In 2019, a three-way MoU was signed between COMAC, CAD Fund and AWA to promote the launch of the ARJ-21 aircraft in the African market, although no specific timeline was given for the introduction of this type.

Africa World Airlines operated the following scheduled services as of November 2021.

On 15 April 2021, Africa World Airlines conducted the first ever test flight by a jet aircraft to Ho Airport. The airline stated that they intended to commence scheduled services between Ho and Accra shortly thereafter.

As a privately owned carrier, AWA does not make financial data available to the public. However, traffic statistics are published by the airline as well as Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and Ghana Airports Company Limited. Other figures have been made available via press reports, interviews and other publications.

Africa World Airlines has interline agreements with the following airlines:

In 2019, AWA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with South African Airways to jointly pursue opportunities in West Africa, including a system-wide codeshare agreement and other commercial partnerships. The codeshare went into effect in October 2019.

The airline also announced an interline partnership with Emirates to provide domestic and regional feed to their flights at Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

AWA also signed a tripartite partnership with Ethiopian Airlines and ASKY to offer seamless travel within the West African region.

In October 2019, AWA and Brussels Airlines concluded an interline partnership to connect passengers through their joint networks.

AWA and Air Burkina announced in January 2020 that they had concluded a partnership for passengers to connect from Ouagadougou through Accra to Lagos, Abuja and Abidjan.

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