Air Peace to join club of 6 carriers with non-stop Africa to New York JFK flights

Business a.m., with wire reports

When Air Peace eventually starts its Lagos-New York-Lagos operations this year as planned, it would be joining an exclusive club of just six carriers with direct flights between Africa and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to an analytical report focusing on the current six operators in Simple Flying and monitored by Business a.m.

The JFK International Airport in New York is the busiest airport in the city and Air Peace is currently working on necessary approvals from the United States end to get its aircraft airborne carrying passengers from Lagos all the way to the airport in New York non-stop.

Air Peace, the largest airline across west and central Africa by fleet size, had been licensed by the Nigerian government to take necessary steps to begin direct flight operations to the United States.

The approval for the airline to fly to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York was granted in February a month after it wrote to the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development seeking permission to start US operations. The ministry had then responded with the following reply:

“Conveyance of approval to Messrs Air Peace Limited to operate commercial international flight operations into and out of New York.”

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) is an airport out of which more than seventy airlines operate; they include the flag carriers of several nations of Europe, the Middle East, and the continent whose aviation sector is projected to see pre-pandemic numbers this year – Africa, according to Simple Flying.

Following is an examination of the six airlines that currently operate direct flights between Africa and New York JFK that Air Peace will be joining when it begins operations this year. According to the report, five of the airlines are flag carriers from Africa, with just a single carrier based in the US competing with them.

6

Air Senegal (HC)

The flag carrier of Senegal has the least number of direct flights between JFK and Africa

Out of the six carriers that have direct operations between Africa and JFK, Air Senegal has the least number of flights.

According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, there will be a total of 4,572 seats and 17,510,760 ASMs on Air Senegal’s operations from JFK to Blaise Diagne International Airport (DSS) in Darkar, Senegal.

The flights are offered on Mondays and Fridays. Delta Air Lines is the only competitor offering direct flights on this route. While Air Senegal chooses to operate the Airbus A340-300 on this route, Delta operates the Boeing 767-300 (winglets).

According to flightconnections.com, the earliest flight from JFK to DSS departs at 01:30 and arrives at 13:50 in Dakar. The last flight from JFK, in contrast, departs at 21:10 and arrives at 09:05 at Dakar.

5

Ethiopian Airlines (ET)

This flag carrier of Ethiopia has almost half the operations than the flag carrier of Egypt

Ethiopian Airlines has almost twice the number of direct flights between JFK and Africa compared to Air Senegal. The number of seats is also almost two times higher, while the ASMs are almost three times greater than those offered by Senegal’s flag carrier.

Last year, Ethiopian Airlines started serving nine-weekly flights to New Jersey and New York. This was the highest frequency of this carrier back then. The flights were served on the carrier’s Boeing 787.

Ethiopian Airlines offers four-weekly flights from JFK to Abidjan (ABJ), Côte D’Ivore. This nearly 5000-mile journey is offered on the Boeing 787-8 the airline operates.

According to data from flightroutes.com, there are two other airlines that offer one-stop flights from JFK to ABJ.

4

EgyptAir (MS)

EgyptAir operates a 5,599-mile non-stop route from JFK to the capital of Egypt

Egypt Air, the state-owned flag carrier of Egypt, will operate 62 flights between Africa and JFK in August 2024. EgyptAir will offer economy and business-class seats on the 10-hour and 20-minute flight between Cairo and New York on its Boeing 777-300.

EgyptAir has been at the heart of operations between North America and Egypt, with the carrier operating half a million seats in 2021. James Pearson, a journalist for Simple Flying, had further shed light on EgyptAir’s operations between New York and Cairo:

“…. but will loads and yields keep up?..EgyptAir serves New York JFK, Toronto, and Washington Dulles , partly reflecting the significant Egyptian diaspora and heritage in wider New York City..According to the Department of Transport’s T-100 data, Cairo-JFK had an 84.7% seat load factor in 2019, higher than the carrier’s system average, which says nothing of financial performance without other information. Since then, it has obviously been lower, mainly around the 60-70% mark. It’ll gradually return to normal, so seeing what ‘normal’ means is meaningful.”

3

Delta Air Lines

Delta is the only carrier from the US on this list

Delta Air Lines and Kenya Airways have almost identical numbers of non-stop operations from JFK to Africa. Despite not having a pronounced difference in the number of seats offered either, the ASMs of Delta Air Lines are approximately 60,000,000 lower.

Delta offers non-stop flights from JFK to Accra (ACC)- Ghana’s capital and largest city. Delta is the only carrier offering a non-stop flight between the two cities. Delta operates the Boeing 767-300 (winglets) on its daily flights on this route, which spans 5,137 miles. The other carriers which offer you a flight from JFK – ACC include:

2

Kenya Airways

Kenya’s flag carrier has the highest ASMs of any airline operating a direct flight from JFK to Africa

Kenya Airways (KQ), Kenya’s flag carrier, offers 21,060 seats on the 90 flights it will operate between Africa and JFK in August 2024.

Despite 34 fewer operations than the airline with the most flights on this list, KQ offers more ASMs than any other airline operating non-stop flights from JFK to Africa.

KQ offers direct flights from JFK to Nairobi (NBO) on its Boeing 787-8s. The aircraft takes 15 hours to complete this nearly 12,000-kilometre journey.

On some days of the week, KQ operates two flights per day from JFK to NBO, while on others, only one flight is available. The same is true for operations from NBO to JFK.

Plenty of other carriers offer a one-stop flight from JFK. These include:

• Air France via Paris

• Turkish Airlines via Istanbul

• British Airways via London

The flights from JFK to Nairobi, with a one-stop route, are at least five hours longer than the non-stop ones.