For our recent trip to Chad, we flew on ASKY airlines. This is a small African company, only a few years old, based out of Lome, Togo.
The first thing I can say is that while they do have a website where you can get information, you can't actually book your tickets there. It looks like you can up until you want to book them, and then it doesn't work and you have to call a travel agent. (you can't book their tickets on any search sites such as Travelocity or Kayak either.)
We flew out of Bamako, Mali on a weekday morning. The airport in Bamako has been recently redone and its pretty nice. Checking in there was fine. The 3 flights to finally get to N'Djamena, Chad were fine. Everything seemed normal to me. I really don't have anything much to say about our trip towards Chad, it was unremarkable. We were served some kind of food on each leg of the trip: one hot meal and then they handed out plastic wrapped sandwiches along with beverage service on the other 2 flights. Each flight segment was only around 2 hours, so that is a lot better service than one gets nowadays on flights within the USA!
I have a few more comments though regarding the trip back towards Mali. We received a message from the travel agency a few days before our flight saying that the time was changed from 8:30am to 7:35am. They recommended for us to arrive at the airport at 5am. Uh, no, I'm not going to the airport at 5am. I know from experience that the check in counter wouldn't even be open that far in advance of the flight so we would just be sitting waiting with our suitcases. We woke up at 5 and got to the airport around 6:15, but it wasn't until 7 that we were let through the doors into the room where the check in counters are.
We were driven to the airport by a couple and JP's mom. When we got to a barred security check point about 1/2 mile from the airport, the officer wanted to see our plane tickets and passports. Then they made JP's mom and the woman of the couple get out in the rain and wait over yonder. They couldn't ride in the car up to the curb, and it was raining out, and these were 2 women around 50 years old. I guess that this isn't ASKY's fault, this is a NDJ airport thing, but I am still mentioning it.
Every airport I've been to in Africa has been pretty small and seemed like what a small regional airport would be in the states and not like a capital city's international hub. I was surprised though at how slowly things moved along at the N'Djamena airport, and how very inefficient things seemed. When we were finally let through the doors to the room with the check in counters, there were 2 lines. One had a big banner saying ASKY Business Class, and the other said ASKY Economy. We went in the Economy line and waited there for a solid 20 minutes before someone told us that we were in the line for some humanitarian WFP flight. It wasn't for ASKY at all. We were told to move over to the line that said ASKY Business Class. I guess my literacy was working against me. When we got up to the desk it was 7:30 (we thought our flight was rescheduled for 7:35) but I wasn't worried about the plane leaving without us because there were still lots of people behind us in line. And then I found out that the flight wasn't actually changed, it was still at 8:30 and we had gotten up an hour earlier in the dark for nothing. At the desk I learned why things were moving so slowly: the agent was new and had to ask his supervisor how to do everything, and the boarding passes and luggage tags were being written up by hand. Ok, I can forgive a trainee needing to learn his job, but hand written boarding passes and luggage tags?! Did we just warp 50 years into the past? Even if power was out or something, this is an International Airport and there must be back-up generators. Maybe their printer was out of ink? I don't know, but this seems ridiculous to me.
I'll skip the security and waiting room stuff and jump onto the plane. So we thought the flight was for 7:35, but it was still supposed to be for 8:30. We boarded the plane at about 8:20, but it didn't take off until after 10. In that time everyone was asked to show our boarding pass stubs (yeah the ones we had already had examined 3 times before we could board the plane) and then they came around again with a list of names to check on us again. Then they carried nice big glasses of OJ up to first class and gave us nothing. I was sure that we would miss one of our other flights because of the delay, but they just delayed those as well so that no one missed their connections.
Otherwise things were not bad once we were flying. The flight staff seemed a lot more competent that the staff inside the airport. I don't know why we were delayed like that or where the fault lies, but I guess that happens sometimes.
One other thing - but this is about airports in Africa in general. After you get your bags off the carousel and you're ready to leave the airport, you always have to pass your bags, including hand luggage, through an xray scanner before you can leave. This makes no sense to me. Stupidest thing ever. After I've finished flying and I'm ready to leave the airport they want to see if I have contraband? Did they forget about all the security I went through before I got on my flight? Or are they checking to see if maybe I am trying to steal something off a plane or from inside the airport? If you understand why they do this please enlighten me.
So I would say that our 1st travel day with ASKY was fine. Nothing bad but nothing outstanding. The 2nd travel day was a bit of a pain, but it wasn't all ASKY's fault. The questions of would I recommend this company or would I fly with them again are kind of irrelevant. When there are no other options you go with what is available. There was actually one other option for our trip to Chad - we could have gone on Ethiopian airlines. The problem with that is that it goes first to Ethiopia and then to Chad, which is like wanting to travel from California to Minnesota and going by way of New York. It also has an overnight lay over making it a 2 day trip. So we would definitely go again with ASKY. I just hope they can get their printers sorted out at the NDJ airport before we do.
The first thing I can say is that while they do have a website where you can get information, you can't actually book your tickets there. It looks like you can up until you want to book them, and then it doesn't work and you have to call a travel agent. (you can't book their tickets on any search sites such as Travelocity or Kayak either.)
We flew out of Bamako, Mali on a weekday morning. The airport in Bamako has been recently redone and its pretty nice. Checking in there was fine. The 3 flights to finally get to N'Djamena, Chad were fine. Everything seemed normal to me. I really don't have anything much to say about our trip towards Chad, it was unremarkable. We were served some kind of food on each leg of the trip: one hot meal and then they handed out plastic wrapped sandwiches along with beverage service on the other 2 flights. Each flight segment was only around 2 hours, so that is a lot better service than one gets nowadays on flights within the USA!
I have a few more comments though regarding the trip back towards Mali. We received a message from the travel agency a few days before our flight saying that the time was changed from 8:30am to 7:35am. They recommended for us to arrive at the airport at 5am. Uh, no, I'm not going to the airport at 5am. I know from experience that the check in counter wouldn't even be open that far in advance of the flight so we would just be sitting waiting with our suitcases. We woke up at 5 and got to the airport around 6:15, but it wasn't until 7 that we were let through the doors into the room where the check in counters are.
We were driven to the airport by a couple and JP's mom. When we got to a barred security check point about 1/2 mile from the airport, the officer wanted to see our plane tickets and passports. Then they made JP's mom and the woman of the couple get out in the rain and wait over yonder. They couldn't ride in the car up to the curb, and it was raining out, and these were 2 women around 50 years old. I guess that this isn't ASKY's fault, this is a NDJ airport thing, but I am still mentioning it.
Every airport I've been to in Africa has been pretty small and seemed like what a small regional airport would be in the states and not like a capital city's international hub. I was surprised though at how slowly things moved along at the N'Djamena airport, and how very inefficient things seemed. When we were finally let through the doors to the room with the check in counters, there were 2 lines. One had a big banner saying ASKY Business Class, and the other said ASKY Economy. We went in the Economy line and waited there for a solid 20 minutes before someone told us that we were in the line for some humanitarian WFP flight. It wasn't for ASKY at all. We were told to move over to the line that said ASKY Business Class. I guess my literacy was working against me. When we got up to the desk it was 7:30 (we thought our flight was rescheduled for 7:35) but I wasn't worried about the plane leaving without us because there were still lots of people behind us in line. And then I found out that the flight wasn't actually changed, it was still at 8:30 and we had gotten up an hour earlier in the dark for nothing. At the desk I learned why things were moving so slowly: the agent was new and had to ask his supervisor how to do everything, and the boarding passes and luggage tags were being written up by hand. Ok, I can forgive a trainee needing to learn his job, but hand written boarding passes and luggage tags?! Did we just warp 50 years into the past? Even if power was out or something, this is an International Airport and there must be back-up generators. Maybe their printer was out of ink? I don't know, but this seems ridiculous to me.
I'll skip the security and waiting room stuff and jump onto the plane. So we thought the flight was for 7:35, but it was still supposed to be for 8:30. We boarded the plane at about 8:20, but it didn't take off until after 10. In that time everyone was asked to show our boarding pass stubs (yeah the ones we had already had examined 3 times before we could board the plane) and then they came around again with a list of names to check on us again. Then they carried nice big glasses of OJ up to first class and gave us nothing. I was sure that we would miss one of our other flights because of the delay, but they just delayed those as well so that no one missed their connections.
Otherwise things were not bad once we were flying. The flight staff seemed a lot more competent that the staff inside the airport. I don't know why we were delayed like that or where the fault lies, but I guess that happens sometimes.
One other thing - but this is about airports in Africa in general. After you get your bags off the carousel and you're ready to leave the airport, you always have to pass your bags, including hand luggage, through an xray scanner before you can leave. This makes no sense to me. Stupidest thing ever. After I've finished flying and I'm ready to leave the airport they want to see if I have contraband? Did they forget about all the security I went through before I got on my flight? Or are they checking to see if maybe I am trying to steal something off a plane or from inside the airport? If you understand why they do this please enlighten me.
So I would say that our 1st travel day with ASKY was fine. Nothing bad but nothing outstanding. The 2nd travel day was a bit of a pain, but it wasn't all ASKY's fault. The questions of would I recommend this company or would I fly with them again are kind of irrelevant. When there are no other options you go with what is available. There was actually one other option for our trip to Chad - we could have gone on Ethiopian airlines. The problem with that is that it goes first to Ethiopia and then to Chad, which is like wanting to travel from California to Minnesota and going by way of New York. It also has an overnight lay over making it a 2 day trip. So we would definitely go again with ASKY. I just hope they can get their printers sorted out at the NDJ airport before we do.
well, now I got to hear about the rest of your trip!
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