Air Côte d'Ivoire opens new route to SA
Air Côte d'Ivoire will be launching a new route between Johannesburg and Abidjan, in Côte d'Ivoire. The Johannesburg-Abidjan via Kinshasa route will launch on 29 June 2022. The airline will be introducing four flights per week between Johannesburg and Abidjan. Bookings opened on 1 June 2022.
The new route also offers ease of access to 16 West and Central African countries: Congo, Gabon, Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Liberia, Benin, Senegal, Cameroon, Togo, DRC, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau.
Last year, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed nine cooperation agreements with his Ivorian counterpart, Alassane Ouattara. During the Ivorian-South Africa economic forum in December 2021, Ramaphosa said the West African nation is an attractive investment and trade destination for South African companies, and that African countries can fully reap the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) if they work together.
"Côte d’Ivoire is a strategic trading partner for South Africa, and there is tremendous potential to further increase trade in value-added products between our two countries. Having greater and direct access to each other’s markets is a catalyst for investment," Ramaphosa said at the forum, held at the Sofitel Hotel in Abidjan.
Côte d’Ivoire’s GDP in 2021 stood at $70.99bn and statistics from the African Development Bank show that the country’s GDP could grow by 6.5% in 2022, with the transport, construction, agriculture and petroleum sectors expected to drive much of that growth.
Air Côte d’Ivoire CEO Laurent Loukou believes the new route between Abidjan and Johannesburg will be key to opening up opportunities for investment and improving bilateral trade between the two countries.
