The Head of State, His Excellency Mr. Ismail Omar Guellehhas, today, Thursday, in the morning, presided over the official ceremony dedicated to the commissioning of the new national airline “Air Djibouti”.
In a statement on this occasion, the President of the Republic expressed satisfaction that our country “has now its own national airline”.
President Guelleh said: « Besides the pride related to leave our mark in the global arena of civil aviation, the acquisition of our own airline was a sine qua non for the development that is already well under way, of our country into an international hub».
The Head of State went on to say that « The commissioning of this new company is in addition to infrastructure including ports, roads, railways and telecommunications already acquired or currently being finalized in our country and aiming at increasing its level of openness to the rest of the world to better align it to its natural vocation as a redistribution platform for economic and trade exchanges in this part of the world».
Based on the model of public-private partnership, the Djibouti Government, however, holds the majority of shares in the new company, and it inherits the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company.
Expected to gradually increase its services, the company Air Djibouti will start its flights with an apparatus that can accommodate a preliminary total of 150 passengers, divided into 138 seats in economic class and 12 seats in business class.
A flight fromDjibouti to Jeddah, devoted entirely to the transport of Djibouti pilgrims will mark the entry into service of the new airline which will, as part of its operations, serve nearly all capitals and major cities of neighboring countries, including Addis Ababa, Dire-Dawa, Mogadishu, Bossaso and Hargueisa.
Air Djibouti plans to rapidly widen its spectrum of air services by inaugurating, by early January, flights to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Finally, it plans to reach its optimum carrying capacity in a year when it will commence flights to the major European capitals, including Paris and London.
The British company Cardiff Aviation, specialized in the management, maintenance and training of the airline staff, is a partner of the Djibouti government in the new company Air Djibouti.
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