Gabon’s Afrijet adds wet-leased ATR freighter

Afrijet Business Service (J7, Libreville) has wet-leased its first dedicated freighter, an ATR72-500(F), from Switzerland’s Zimex Aviation (XM, Zurich). HB-ABS (msn 711) was ferried from Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg, CH via Malta Int’l and Tamanrasset to Libreville over the course of December 28-30, 2020, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. The aircraft is painted in the Gabonese carrier’s livery. The 16.6-year-old Avions de Transport Régional turboprop is a new addition to Zimex’s fleet, and the wet-lease with Afrijet is its first commercial deployment. It was previously by CanaryFly (PM, Las Palmas) in a passenger configuration through November 2019, the ch-aviation fleets history module shows. HB-ABS marks Afrijet’s first foray into the dedicated freighter market. Gabon’s largest carrier also operates one ATR42-500, two ATR72-500s, and one ATR72-600s. It also supplements its in-house fleet with another wet-leased passenger aircraft, an ATR42-500 operated by Solenta Aviation (SET, Lanseria). Afrijet deploys the fleet on a network of domestic scheduled flights, as well as to Douala in Cameroon. For its part, Zimex Aviation operates eight ATR dedicated freighters – two ATR42-300Fs, four ATR72-200(F)s, and two ATR72-500(F)s, as well as a single passenger-configured ATR42-500, operated for the Schweizer Luftwaffe (SUI, Berne). Its fleet also includes twelve DHC-6s and six PC-6s.