Sierra Leone Airways

[andre19]

Sierra Leone Airways was formed in early 1958 upon the disbanding of West African Airways. The fleet consisted of three de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapides. The airline provided amazing improvements in travel time within the country, turning several day journeys into two hour flights. For example, Freetown is separated from the main airport at Lungi by the Sierra Leone River estuary. The trip by bus and boat took several hours, but by air 15 minutes. The airline operated a shuttle from Hastings Airport near Freetown to the airport at Lungi. Scheduled services were also operated to Bo, Kenema, Yengema and Daru. One Rapide (VR-LAC) was damaged beyond repair at Hastings on 30 May 1958.

In 1959 and 1960 operations continued using the two serviceable Rapides.

Operations were temporarily stopped in early 1961 due to financial difficulties. British United Airways (BUA) was contracted to operate the airline in March 1961. Two Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneers were acquired and domestic services began again in June 1961. One Twin Pioneer (G-APMT) was an independance gift from the British government, the other (G-APRS) was on lease to Sierra Leone Airways until September 1961. G-APMT was re-registered as 9L-LAC in 1962 and named 'Freetown'.

In July 1962 a de Havilland DH.114 Heron was purchased and was put straight into service. Two more Herons were acquired (in 1964 and 1968) and replaced the Rapides and Twin Pioneer.

In 1982 Sierra Leone Airways was renamed Sierra Leone Airlines.





c/n 6963. Allocated TX305 but not taken up. To Hunting Air Travel as G-AHPU in 1946. To Luton Flying Club in 1957. Sold to Sierra Leone Airways in May 1958 as VR-LAD and named "Loma".

c/n 537. Delivered to Red lion and Sun Organisation as EP-AGG. Purchased by the the British Government as G-APMT and given as a gift to Sierra Leone on their independence. Re-registered as 9L-LAC in 1962 and named 'Freetown'.

c/n 14025. Delivered new to PLUNA Lineas Aereas Uruguaygas S.A. in 1953 as CX-AOS. To Eagle Airways in 1958 as G-APKU. In October 1961 ownership transferred to British United Airways (BUA). To Sierra Leone Airways in July 1962 as 9L-LAD. To National Diamond Mining Company (N.D.M.C) of Sierra Leone in 1975 as 9L-LAT. Returned to United Kingdom and re-registered as G-APKU in 1976. Broken up at Biggen Hill in December 1978.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Nice job. My July 1962 OAG lists one scheduled flight within Sierra Leone (Flt. 21/22, Daily ex. Sun) from Freetown to Bo, Kenema, and Yengema. Daru was served on Tuesday and Friday. But it also lists a flight from Freetown to London Gatwick (Flt. 352/351, Friday/Thursday). This appears to also have been a BUA flight - Viscount service from London Gatwick to Lisbon, Las Palmas (Canary Is.), Bathurst, Freetown, and Accra. An early code share.

PS. We have the Heron and Twin Pioneer flying in the AI traffic too. We are flying a 1963 schedule that features more flights though. The BUA flight is also flying.

[andre19]

Thanks Tom. My FS2004 is setup using your AI Traffic for 1959 so I’ve used a 1961 timetable and slightly modified the schedule to include Hastings and also added a shuttle between Freetown to Hastings using the Rapides. BUA were using Britannia 312’s from November 1961 on the London to Freetown route (another one on my list of repaints to do), and thanks I wasn’t aware of the Viscount service.

I’ve also modified all the afcads for the local airports to include parking, as there wasn’t much AI traffic actually flying around.

As always you are welcome to use any of my repaints in your AI packs. Thanks again for all those involved in putting them together, I know how much work was involved.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi,

No problem. My OAG shows BUA Britannia service to Salisbury and to Nairobi, but the flight to Accra is listed as a Viscount. But they might have forgotten to update that entry - that's not unusual.

[andre19]

My information regarding the Britannia I got from the book "Encyclopedia of African Airlines" and the timetable below. Looks like there were two BUA flights into Freetown, one direct from London (Gatwick) and the other the Viscount flight.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi,

I rechecked my OAG and a Britannia *is* listed on the Sierra Leone page (didn't notice that before), but a Viscount is listed on the BUA page. They have the same flight number, so I assume they are the same flight. Looks like either BUA didn't update their page, or Sierra Leone was advertising a fancier plane than actually flew the route, or perhaps a temporary substitution.

To further confuse things, my Viscount book says that BUA BAC-111's replaced the Viscounts on "their last long range Safari route, to West Africa via the Canary Islands." So who's right?

[andre19]

Thanks again for the info Tom. It's not really that important, I've found many of these types of conflicting information. Whatever the equipment I presume the passengers were grateful they didn't have to catch a ship. 

[Tom/CalClassic]

LOL, you're right.