Sierra Leone’s new privately owned flag carrier, Air Sierra Leone, is gearing up to commence commercial operations between Freetown and London Gatwick in early June 2025.
According to CEO Emmanuel Iza, the airline will operate the route using a Boeing 737-8 leased from Ascend Airways, marking a significant step in strengthening air connectivity for the West African nation.
In an interview with ch-aviation, he said a special inaugural flight for VIPs is planned for April 27 to mark Sierra Leone’s independence day. Sales for the commercial flights, planned for 3x weekly, are expected to open soon.
The UK-Sierra Leone market is seasonal with the summer wave starting in June and peaking in August.
This follows regulatory approval granted by the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone authorities, as confirmed to ch-aviation by Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Authority (SLCAA) Director-General Musayeroh Barrie.
The charter operations with G-WEAH (msn 43340) were initially planned for December 2024, but were delayed due to regulatory approvals required for ASL to sell tickets on the UK route. Currently a virtual carrier, Air Sierra Leone eyes its own certificate in the near future.
According to Iza, it is entering the fourth and penultimate phase of its certification process, which involves demonstration and inspection. The SLCAA is confident that it will be able to issue ASL with its own air operator’s certificate (AOC) by April this year, Barrie said.
Iza confirmed that once ASL has attained its AOC, the current charter agreement with Ascend Airways will convert into a full wet lease. He said the initial agreement with the British ACMI/charter specialist owned by Avia Solutions Group was for the IATA 2024 winter season but has been extended to the 2025 summer period. ASL is a Sierra-Leone-registered subsidiary of Nigeria’s Xejet (4U, Lagos).
It currently operates regional flights between Freetown and Lagos with one E145, 5N-BZZ (14500855), chartered from the Nigerian parent company. Iza also confirmed that Xejet plans to eventually sell the E145 to ASL and source two B737s for the flag carrier.
“Once the AOC is done, they will just go straight onto ASL’s AOC and the local Sierra Leone register,” he said.
Sierra Leonean-flagged carriers are banned from operating to the UK and European Union, but the SLCAA is using ASL’s certification as a test case to demonstrate the country’s safety standards and competence.
The goal is to have Sierra Leone removed from the respective air safety lists by the second half of 2025. Once ASL’s AOC is issued, the EU Safety Commission is expected to perform an on-site audit of the SLCAA.
The country has been on the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) air safety list since 2008 due to concerns over its aviation safety standards.
However, under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in March 2024, the Italian civil aviation authority (ENAC) has been providing technical assistance to the SLCAA to help remove Sierra Leone from the blacklist. Meanwhile, ASL has announced the appointment of Obi Mbanuzuo as its chief operating officer (COO) to oversee operational planning, safety compliance, and commercial strategy.
According to a company statement, he has had leadership roles at Dana Air (DAN, Lagos), Virgin Nigeria (Lagos), and Virgin Atlantic International (VGI, London Heathrow). Most recently, he worked at aviation consultancy Aviation Partners UK.
