Air Côte d’Ivoire takes delivery of maiden A320neo

Air Côte d’Ivoire (HF, Abidjan) took delivery of its first A320-200N on February 18, 2021, after TU-TSX (msn 10197) was ferried directly from Toulouse Blagnac to Abidjan. The jet is powered by CFM International LEAP 1-A engines and features 148 seats including 16 in business class and 132 in economy. The majority-state-owned carrier will use the A320neo on its regional network connecting Abidjan with destinations in Senegal (Dakar Blaise Diagne Int’l), Gabon (Libreville), and Cameroon (Yaoundé Nsimalen and Douala). Going forward, it will also deploy the aircraft to South Africa. Its current route to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo is operated via Luanda or Kinshasa N’Djili, the ch-aviation schedules module shows. Air Côte d’Ivoire, which is 11%-owned by Air France, currently operates three A319-100s, two A320-200s, and four DHC-8-Q400s. Besides the newly delivered A320neo, it also has two A319-100Ns on firm order from Airbus. Last week, the airline reported turnover of XOF48 billion CFA Francs (USD88.7 million) in 2020, down 42% from the XOF83 billion it generated the previous year, an official told Reuters on Thursday. To help tide the carrier through the COVID-19 pandemic, the government last year granted it XOF14 billion (USD25.9 million) in emergency funding.