Sierra National Airlines

Sierra National Airlines is the national airline of Sierra Leone. It is based at the Lungi International Airport, in Lungi, Sierra Leone. It operated scheduled domestic, regional and international services, but is currently not active.

Code data

• IATA Code: LJ
• ICAO Code: SLA
• Callsign: Selair ^[1]

History

Sierra Leone Airlines Boeing 707 at London Gatwick Airport (May 1983).

Sierra Leone Airways was founded as Sierra Leone's national carrier in 1958 when the government withdrew from the regional West African Airways Corporation partnership with Nigeria, Ghana, and the Gambia. In 1982, the Sierra Leone government entered into a partnership with Alia/Royal Jordanian Airlines, and relaunched Sierra Leone Airways as Sierra Leone Airlines.^[2][3] Following the suspension of operations by Sierra Leone Airlines in 1987, services from Freetown were resumed on 1 May 1990 under the current airline name.^[4]

In early 2004 the airline experienced some problems with its United Kingdom Sales and Reservations structures which were restructured. Scheduled flights between London Gatwick Airport and Lungi International Airport, Freetown, resumed on 30 November 2004.^[5]

In October 2004 Gold Coast Aviation (PTY) Ltd., a South African based aviation company, who have proposed to take over the operations of the Sierra National Airlines (SNA), have held discussions with President Kabbah about their intent to start operation of a new airline in partnership with SNA from 19 November 2004, subject to the approval of the National Commission for Privatisation. They intend to operate a Douglas DC-9 on Freetown - Liberia - Accra - Abidjan services, and a service between Freetown and Johannesburg. A Boeing 767 would be used on the Freetown-London service, with connections to other cities in Europe. They also intend later to commence flights to Dubai with connections through Banjul and Conakry ^[6]

In early 2005 the Sierra Leone Airports Authority claimed that SNA owed them US$800,000 in charges for landing fees, electricity, rent and ground handling services and complained that the refusal to pay the debts is affecting their operations. They won a court case against the airline but the government stopped the process ^[7]

International Scheduled Destinations

As of January 2005 Sierra National Airlines operated the following services:

• London (Gatwick Airport)
• Amsterdam (Amsterdam Schiphol Airport)
• Banjul (Banjul International Airport)
• Monrovia (Roberts International Airport)
• Conakry (Conakry International Airport)

External links

• Sierra National Airlines (website does not appear to have been updated since November 2004)
• Sierra National Airlines (new website coming soon)

References