Camair-Co: Will New Management Team Deliver Cameroon’s Air Carrier From Mismanagement?

By Doh Bertrand Nua in Yaounde 

Cameroon’s ailing airline corporation, Camair-Co now has a new management team to help revive the activities of the company. The new team was appointed following an extraordinary Board meeting in Yaounde Thursday 7 January 2021.

Ailing Cameroon's Airline Corporation gets new management team

The national air carrier will now be headed by Jean Christophe Ella Nguema, a colonel of the Cameroon air force as General Manager. He will be closely assisted by Alexandre Fochive as Deputy GM while Jean Claude Ayem Moger is the new Board Chair. 

New team to manage affairs of Camair-Co

While installing the new management team, Transport Minister and former Board Chair, Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe, tasked them to refurbish one of the two Boeing 737-700NGs owned by the company, restructure its debt, acquire new aircrafts and re-launch the activities the company by opening up its share capital to private investors. 

The team will also been tasked with completing the intense auditing and ensuring that both the domestic and international flights are regular.

  

Since  its creation in  September  2006  to replace  the  defunct  Cameroon Airlines  (Camair), Camair-Co  has  been  operated  as  a  public service  company  with  little  or  no  profit  making objectives. 

The  airline  that  prides  itself  as  ‘The  Star  of Cameroon’  has  been  flying  through  a  turbulent zone;  grappling  with  financial  and  managerial crisis. 

Jean Christophe Ella Nguema replaces Louis Georges Njipendi Kouotou to become the 7th GM of the corporation. Up  till  the  end  of  2015,  Camair-Co ran  only  three  planes - the Boeing  767300ER  named  The  Dja,  which  it  inherited  from Camair  and  two  737-700s  acquired  by  leasing from  US-based Aviation  Capital  Group. 

Camair-Co  later  acquired  two  small  Chinese made  MA 60  planes in  early  2016  and  a  Bombardier  aircraft  in  2018 bringing  the  company’s  fleet  to  six.  

The Bombardier  Dash8-Q400 aircraft  reportedly developed a technical  fault  29 May 2018 during  its  inaugural  flight  from Douala  to  the  nation’s  capital, Yaounde. 

Beside domestic flight to some of the regional capitals with airports, Camair-Co offers flight to some sub-regional  destinations  including,  Libreville  in  Gabon,  Bangui  in  the Central African  Republic and  Ndjamena  in  Chad. It at times extend to Cotonou in  Benin,  Dakar  in  Senegal,  Lagos  in  Nigeria, and  Abidjan  in  Cote  d’Ivoire. 

The  company  has incessantly depended on subvention from government to  survive with  it’s  over  500  workers  whose salary arrears stood  at  over  FCFA 500 million. 

President Paul Biya recently ordered the restructuring of the company with 51% of capital opened to strategic partners. He also  recommended  that  some  cash  be  pumped into  the  corporation  for  revival  and  that  two  of the  ailing  planes  of  the  company  should  be  taken for  repairs.