Camair-Co leases a Dash8-400, prepares to acquire two more
Cameroon's national carrier has commissioned a new Dash8-400. The airplane (msn 4105), owned by the South African private carrier Cemair, has been deployed for almost a week on the domestic network which includes 5 routes: Douala, Yaoundé, Ngaoundéré, Garoua, Maroua.
Operated under a wet-lease contract(rental with crew) until next March and possibly extendable, the new Dash8-400 reinforces Camair-Co's active fleet which includes a MA60 (TJQDA) and a Boeing 737 -300 (msn 29130) - taken on rental with crew from the Ukrainian company Jonika.
In a parallel, the Cameroonian national flagship is also active in the acquisition of its own fleet of two Dash8-400s. An Adhoc committee has been set up and the first aircraft should arrive by May 2021. In the meantime, the retraining of the pilots, who operated on its Boeing planes, is being prepared. The carrier is showing interest in aircraft from Austrian Airlines, which announced the withdrawal of its last 14 Dash8-400s. The maintenance dispatch of one of the two Boeing 737-700s is also on the table.
On the other hand, the future remains uncertain for the second MA60 (TJQDB), which suffered gunfire when it landed in Bamenda in the northwest of the country in 2019. One Boeing 767-300 is abandoned at Addis Ababa since January 12, 2018.
