Air Bissau

Air Bissau
IATA code :	Y Z
ICAO code :	GBU
Call sign :	TRANSBISSAU
Founding:	1951 (as TAGP)
Operation stopped:	1998
Seat:	Guinea-Bissau
Home airport :	Osvaldo Vieira International Airport
Fleet size:	1
Aims:	national
Air Bissau ceased operations in 1998. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Air Bissau was an airline from Guinea-Bissau that ceased operations in 1998. The state-owned company emerged from Transportes Aéreos da Guiné Portuguesesa (TAGP) , which was founded in 1951 .

history

Air Bissau's origins lie in the Portuguese company Transportes Aéreos da Guiné Portuguesesa (TAGP) , which was founded in 1951 and carried out air services on behalf of the state in what was then the colony of Portuguese Guinea . In 1963 TAGP used aircraft of the types Cessna 170 , De Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide , De Havilland DH.114 Heron and Dornier 27 within the colony area as well as to Dakar , Praia and Ilha do Sal .

After the colony of Portuguese Guinea gained its independence in 1974, the Portuguese company became the property of the newly established Republic of Guinea-Bissau and was named Transportes Aéreos da Guiné-Bissau (TAGB) . Flight operations were initially suspended and resumed in 1975 with Cessna 182 , Cessna 206 and Dornier 27 small aircraft .

In 1977 the state enterprise was named Linhas Aéreas da Guiné-Bissau ( LIA ). In the early 1980s, the company used aircraft of the types Hawker Siddeley HS.748 , Douglas DC-3 , Dornier 27 and Dornier 28 on national routes as well as in international scheduled services to Conakry , Dakar and Praia. In 1988, Linhas Aéreas da Guiné-Bissau temporarily stopped flight operations.

After restructuring, the company was renamed Transportes Aéreos da Guiné-Bissau ( TAGB ) again in 1988 . At the same time, the company concluded a cooperation agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO ), for which three Fokker F-27s were subsequently operated. In 1989 the company leased a Boeing 727-200 from the French airline Europe Aero Service ( EAS ). This was used under the new company name Air Bissau on scheduled flights to Lisbon and Paris . From the mid-1990s, Air Bissau only operated national flights. In 1996 the company put its last Hawker Siddeley HS.748 out of service and instead used a leased Embraer EMB 110 from the French Air Toulouse International . The state company was dissolved in 1998.

Further use of the name

The government of Guinea-Bissau planned to set up a new local airline called Air Bissau in 2014 , but did not implement it. At the same time, EuroAtlantic Airways was commissioned to operate international flights between Bissau and Lisbon from November 2014 .

fleet

TAGP used the following types of aircraft:

• Cessna 170
• Dornier 27
• De Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide
• De Havilland DH.114 Heron

After being taken over by the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, the company began using the following types from 1975:

• Antonov An-24
• Antonov An-26
• Boeing 727 (leased from EAS)
• Boeing 737 (leased from EAS)
• Cessna 182
• Cessna 206
• Douglas DC-3
• Dornier 27
• Dornier 28th
• Embraer EMB 110 (leased from Air Toulouse International)
• Fokker F-27
• Hawker Siddeley HS.748

Incidents

Air Bissau recorded two fatal incidents in its history:

• On August 15, 1991, a Fokker F-27 had an accident en route from Kano Airport ( Nigeria ) to Bamako Airport ( Mali ) while approaching Bamako. The three Palestinian crew members were killed.
• On April 7, 1992, an Antonov An-24 was forced to land in the desert by a sandstorm en route from Khartoum Airport ( Sudan ) to Tunis Airport ( Tunisia ). The three crew members and three of the 13 passengers were killed, one of the survivors was the Palestinian freedom fighter Yasser Arafat .

See also

• Former Airlines List (Africa)
• Former Airlines List (Europe)

Web links

• Photos of Air Bissau on Airliners.net

Individual evidence

1. ^ Flight International, April 11, 1963
2. ^ Aero, issue 217, year 1987
3. ↑ JP airline-fleets international, Edition 76
4. ^ Flight international, April 2, 1983
5. ↑ JP airline-fleets international, Edition 88/89
6. ^ Flight International, September 17, 1991
7. ↑ JP airline-fleets international, Edition 89/90
8. ^ Flight International, March 30, 1993
9. ↑ JP airline-fleets international, Edition 96/97
10. ↑ Ch-aviation : Guinea Bissau in hunt for partners for planned national carrier (English), accessed on November 21, 2014
11. ↑ JP airline-fleets international, various years
12. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
13. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)