Airline Companies created in Cameroon since 1944

Air transport has been contributing to the growth of Cameroon’s economy since 1932. The first ever controllable flight which lasted for about 12 seconds in the air was carried out by the Wright brothers in the United States of America in 1903.

Due to technological advancement, a single aircraft nowadays is capable of transporting more than five hundred persons across so many continents generating a turnover worth billions of dollars.

In Cameroon, the concept of civil aviation started only in 1932 with a project to construct airport infrastructures in Douala, Garoua and Yaounde. At this time, air transport was limited to the transportation of a few tourists to Douala and Garoua.

However in 1947, the first ever national airline company Air Cameroon was created and it operated between the big towns of Cameroon, to Chad, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

A few years later, Cameroon Air Transport based in BOTA in the present South West region came into existence while Compagnie Arianne Ardic and Avia Services were located in Douala.

After Cameroon gained its independence in 1960, it joined other French-speaking countries in Africa to sign the treaty of Yaounde on the 28th of march 1961 that gave birth to Air Afrique, a multinational airline company which did not only served regional and international ro u tes but also the domestic routes in Cameroon.

During this same period, Cameroon was coming out of the economic recession, combine with the wind of liberalization in the form of multilateral agreements like the Yamoussoukro decision, gave more impetus to the air transport market within the continent.

To benefit from this liberalization and under the guidance of the Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority, companies like: Region Air Cameroon, Cotair, Jetfly. Com, UTAC, Afrique Chart Air, Air leasing, Elysian airlines, Air Servi ce Cameroon, CHC Cameroon, were certified between 2000 and 2008 while Planet airlines, Aviatrade Business, Midwest wings and Camair-Co are still on the certification process.

Most of the companies certified are no longer operational because the sustainability of an airline company depends on so many economic factors (high operations cost, maintenance, training of professionals, demand for air services, the price of fuel etc) which are so unpredictable. Most national airline companies fail due to insufficient finances to cover the high cost of operations compared to other similar countries in the sub-region. Furthermore, most of these small airlines do lack aviation professionals to guide them accordingly.