Africa World Airlines - Nine Years

AWA on cloud nine as we marked anniversary on Memorial Day

September 21 was a very special day for all Ghanaians as it is the birthday of the country’s visionary first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, but for AWA the day had extra significance as it marked the day of our first revenue flight. That we began our journey on Memorial Day seems very fitting to us and we hope that Dr Nkrumah would be proud of what this Ghanaian business has achieved in the years since. We couldn’t have done it without you – our cherished passengers – so thank you for your support and let’s look back together at some of the highlights of the AWA story so far…

AWA took its maiden commercial flight on September 21, 2012, with its Embraer 145 aircraft – one of a fleet of two at that time – taking passengers from Accra to Kumasi.

Even from such humble beginnings, we had grand dreams. Our mission from the start was to become the leading airline in Africa and to offer a worldclass service. In just nine years we have made huge progress – establishing a frequently served route network across Ghana and West Africa, adhering to world-leading safety standards on all our flights and signing partnerships with international airlines to connect our passengers across the world. Our achievements have been recognised with a host of awards, including Best Airline of the Year in 2020.

In the same year as our inaugural Accra to Kumasi flight, Tamale was added as a destination and in 2013 AWA launched its first international flight, connecting Accra with Lagos, in Nigeria.

Network

Now our network is spread across West Africa with four domestic destinations – Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and Takoradi – as well as Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria, Monrovia in Liberia and Freetown in Sierra Leone. We are also fulfilling our ambition to connect passengers across the world with our signed partnerships with international airlines such as South African Airways, Emirates, Brussels Airlines, ASKY Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines and United Airlines.

Our network is now served by a fleet of eight 50-seater Embraer 145s. Passengers can be assured of a comfortable and safe flight. In 2015, AWA became the second airline in Ghana to achieve IOSA international safety standards – a status the airline has maintained since by passing biennial audits. In 2017, we became the only Ghanaian airline to be a full member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – which supports aviation with global standards for airline safety, security, efficiency and sustainability – following the completion of our second IOSA audit.

While marking ourselves as an airline of international standard, we are also proud of being a wholly Ghanaian carrier. This can be seen in our focus on training nationals for technical roles such as pilots and engineers as well as cabin crew and customer service on the ground. We have also made air travel an affordable and convenient option for more Ghanaians than ever. Through high utilisation of our aircraft and high-frequency of operations we have broken the mould of air travel as only an exclusive, expensive option here.

We have become the largest airline in Ghana with more than 600,000 passengers transported in 2019, accounting for 68 per cent of domestic passengers and 20 per cent of all passengers in the country. We were also the largest international carrier operating to Nigeria by 2019 with 200 monthly flights to Lagos and Abuja.

Model

Such an operational model has not only proved a boon for customers, it has also made AWA a year-on-year profitable business since 2014. Such financial health means we can keep expanding our network and our services. Stay tuned for the latest developments.

It also means that we are strong to face challenges that come our way. In 2020 that was the Covid pandemic. However, even in such unprecedented trying conditions for the aviation industry, we still managed to survive and serve our people. We continued to operate humanitarian flights to repatriate Ghanaians stranded abroad during the crisis and connected business with cargo flights.

Ghana was the first West Africancountry to resume domestic flightsduring the pandemic and AWAensured our passengers felt secureand safe onboard our aircraft byintroducing industry leading sanitationprotocols with independent watchdogSafe Travel Barometer rating us as thesecond best airline in Africa in regardsto Covid safety.

Flight frequencies and passengernumbers are beginning to head backto pre-pandemic levels with more than56,000 people flying with us in Augustthis year.

Thanks for the trust you’ve placedin us recently and across all our nineyears in the skies. We have madeplenty of progress in that time and aredetermined to do far more in the future.We truly appreciate your business andlook forward to serving you for manymore years to come.

Our nine years in numbers

Over 2.5 Million passengers flown

8 Embraer 145 aircraft

8 destinations: Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, Takoradi, Abuja, Lagos, Monrovia, Freetown

Over 381 employees

AWA awards

Over our nine years, Africa World Airlines has been the proud recipient of many awards. Here is just a selection:

2019 – Inducted into the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana’s (CIMG) Hall of Fame after winning Domestic Airline of the Year for five consecutive years.

2019 – Best Airline in West Africa at the Balafon Travel Awards.

2019 – AWA was recognised by Embraer for providing the highest quality standard of fleet reliability data among all Embraer 145 operators worldwide.

2019 – AviaTour award for Best Passenger Experience.

2019 – Airline Excellence Award for Innovation and Capacity Growth at the Routes Africa Awards in recognition of AWA’s steady growth and creative marketing.

2020 – AWA was commended by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and President Jair Bolsonaro for assisting with the repatriation of Brazilian citizens from seven countries in West Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic.