(Ecofin Agency) - At the end of the fifth edition of the sectoral meetings of coordination committee of the state-private sector’s partnership (Comité de concertation Etat-secteur privé-CCESP) dedicated to the transport sector, held on December 12, 2018, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s minister of transport Amadou Koné (photo) announced the coming launch of two direct lines : Abidjan-Washington and Abidjan-Montréal.

This announcement falls within the framework of the ministry’s new opportunities for the transport sector. According to the minister, all those opportunities are aimed at boosting the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP, which is actually between 7% and 12%.

To appease the air transport staff’s discontent as far as the enormous cost of stopovers, taxes and the shortfall of workers are concerned, Amadou Koné assured that the government was willing to address those problems.

He explained that unless what is thought, Abidjan airport is not the costliest in the region and indicated that the government has decreased the volume of flight-related taxes.

"For regional flights, in Abidjan, we reached XOF35,000, a price much better than that practised within the region", he said.

He also indicated that the government’s ambition was to transform Abidjan airport into the cheapest in the region.

Let’s note that the coming Abidjan-Washington line will be the second direct line with the USA after the launch, some months ago, of the Abidjan-New York line launched by Ethiopian Airlines. 

Flore Kacou