Air Burkina SA is the

national airline A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hist ...

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to ...

, operating scheduled services from its main base at

Ouagadougou Airport Ouagadougou Airport , officially Thomas Sankara International Airport Ouagadougou, is an international airport in the center of the capital city of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. It was built in the 1960s, and it is approximately southeast of t ...

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's old ...

27 March 2007 to one domestic destination,

Bobo-Dioulasso Bobo-Dioulasso is a city in Burkina Faso with a population of 904,920 (); it is the second-largest city in the country, after Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital. The name means "home of the Bobo-Dioula". The local Bobo-speaking population (r ...

, as well as regional services to

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesCôte d'Ivoire,

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

and

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. From 2001 to 2017, the airline was majority owned by an AKFED/IPS consortium, but is now back in government ownership, with reports that a new investor is being sought.

History

The airline was established on 17 March 1967 under the name Air Volta. It was originally part owned by the Burkinabé government, part by

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global a ...

and part privately held. It purchased its first aircraft, an

Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante The Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante (English: ''pioneer'') is a Brazilian general purpose 15–21 passenger twin-turboprop light transport aircraft designed by Embraer for military and civil use. The EMB 110 was designed by the French engineer Max ...

, in 1978, and added a second, a

Fokker F28 The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a twin-engined, short-range jet airliner designed and built by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. Following the Fokker F27 Friendship, an early and commercially successful turboprop-powered regional airliner, Fokk ...

, in 1983. Over the years, the airline has had serious debt problems, reaching a deficit of one billion

CFA franc The CFA franc (french: franc CFA, , Franc of the Financial Community of Africa, originally Franc of the French Colonies in Africa, or colloquially ; abbreviation: F.CFA) is the name of two currencies, the West African CFA franc, used in eight We ...

s in 1992 (approx.

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

1,500,000). In part to address its debt problem, the Burkina Faso government privatised Air Burkina on 21 February 2001, transferring 56% of the shares to the

AKFED Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development SA is a Swiss for-profit entity and international development finance institution which invests in countries of East Africa, West Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland. It ...

IPS IPS, ips, or iPS may refer to: Science and technology Biology and medicine * ''Ips'' (genus), a genus of bark beetle * Induced pluripotent stem cell or iPS cells * Intermittent photic stimulation, a neuroimaging technique * Intraparietal sulcus, ...

consortium, part of the

Aga Khan Development Network The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a network of private, non-denominational (de jure) development agencies founded by the Aga Khan that work primarily in the poorest parts of Asia and Africa. Aga Khan IV succeeded to the office of the 49t ...

. At that time, the government retained 14% of shares. In 2001, following Air Burkina's privatisation and the liquidation of

Air Afrique Air Afrique was a Pan-African airline, that was mainly owned by many West African countries for most of its history. It was established as the official transnational carrier for francophone West and Central Africa, because many of these countr ...

, the airline's debt had largely been alleviated and it was predicting an annual revenue of around 3.5 billion CFA francs (more than

5,000,000). The company saw a general strike in 2002, when workers demanded a 25% wage increase. In the resulting conflict, the director-general of Air Burkina was forced to resign. In August 2013 press reports said that the majority shareholder, AKFED & IPS, will be called in for talks by the Government after its most recent Council of Ministers meeting resolved to discuss the airline's financial state. According to the Burkinabé Ministry of Infrastructure & Transport, a report presented to government claimed the Burkinabé national carrier "faces a difficult financial and economic situation." In May 2017 it was announced that the government had taken over the management of Air Burkina, following the signing of a contract of management cessation with AKFED, with the sale of shares to be made at a symbolic franc. There were also reports that a new investor was being sought.

Corporate affairs

Shareholders

The airline is currently (May 2017) owned by the Government of Burkina Faso. From 2001 to 2017, the company has been majority owned by an AKFED/IPS consortium, and was therefore a member of the Celestair alliance of African airlines.

Business trends

Financial and other business figures for Air Burkina are not fully available, as the company was privately owned until 2017. In the absence of the accounts, some information has been made available, usually in the press, as shown below:

Head office

Air Burkina is headquartered in the Air Burkina Building ( French: ''Immeuble Air Burkina'') in Avenue de la Nation,

Ouagadougou Ouagadougou ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural, and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 2,415,266 in 2019. The city's ...

Destinations

Air Burkina serves the following destinations (as of May 2017):

Codeshare agreements

Air Burkina has

codeshare agreement A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

s with the following airlines: *

ASKY Airlines ASKY Airlines is a private multinational passenger airline serving West and Central Africa, with its head office in Lomé, Togo and its hub at Gnassingbé Eyadéma International Airport. The airline is a strategic partner of Ethiopian Airlines ...

Kenya Airways Kenya Airways Ltd., more commonly known as Kenya Airways, is the flag carrier airline of Kenya. The company was founded in 1977, after the dissolution of East African Airways. Its head office is located in Embakasi, Nairobi, with its hub a ...

Fleet

Current fleet

, the Air Burkina fleet consists of the following aircraft: Air Burkina 2012

Historical fleet

The airline has operated various aircraft in the past, including two

Bombardier CRJ200 The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) is a regional jet designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) ...

s, two McDonnell Douglas MD-87s and 3

Notable pilots

* Zenab Issa Oki Soumaïne was Chad's first female pilot and flew for Air Burkina.

References

AeroTransport Data Bank

External links

Air Burkina

Air Burkina Fleet
{{Authority control Airlines of Burkina Faso Aga Khan Development Network Airlines established in 1967 1967 establishments in Upper Volta