KLM returns to Sierra Leone and Liberia

The Dutch airline, KLM, has announced the resumption of flights to Freetown in Sierra Leone and Monrovia in Liberia for the first time in 20 years.

KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, which is part of the Air France-KLM Group, abandoned the two countries at the height of their civil wars in the 1990s.

In Sierra Leone, the last KLM flight left on December 25, 1996.

Three schedules

The new arrangement provides three schedules per week - Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, direct from Amsterdam and returning via Monrovia.

Sierra Leonean Transport and Aviation minister Leonard Balogun Koroma, received the maiden flight on Sunday night at the Freetown International Airport, with 110 passengers on board.

He said the return of KLM demonstrated the confidence the international community had for the country and its economy, adding that the addition would induce competition, thereby ensuring better service and prices for customers.

The termination

KLM brings to seven the number of international flights now operating in Sierra Leone, after most of the nine airlines operating in the country prior to the Ebola epidemic ceased operations.

The airline said in a statement that the inauguration of the Amsterdam route would reduce flying times each way and give great connection opportunities to destinations worldwide via its hub of Amsterdam Schiphol.

The Sierra Leonean aviation industry was still recovering from the effect of the 2014 Ebola epidemic, which forced the termination of operations by all the airlines at the time, except for Royal Air Maroc and Brussels Airlines.

The scarcity of airlines left Sierra Leone as one of the most expensive places to fly to and from.

KLM becomes the third major European airline to fly to Sierra Leone, after Air France and Brussels Airlines.

The Sierra Leone Airport Authority (SLAA) said negotiations to have KLM return lasted six months.

Its confidence

"KLM left this country just from the beginning of the rebel war, and its coming back means that not only KLM has restored its confidence in the country, [but] also in the activities of the airport,” said SLAA General Manager Idriss Nabie Fofana.

Mr Fofana said negotiations were still ongoing to have more airlines return or start. Among them was Air Mauritania, which was expected to link Freetown to Banjul in The Gambia and Dakar in Senegal.

But there were concerns about the sustainability of the airlines, especially big ones like KLM.

British Airways, for example, ceased operation during the Ebola epidemic just few months after resumption. That decision was initially attributed to the epidemic, but it soon emerged that it had to do with operational cost and viability of the route.

The continent

The Air France-KLM West Africa Director, Mr Philippe Barbieri, however assured that the airline was back for the long haul. He said they were investing a lot with six destinations to the continent in 2017, noting that Sierra Leoneans would have six opportunities to go to Europe and come back in a week.

“With this, not only is KLM back in Sierra Leone, but that the Air France-KLM Group is back in Africa.”