Air Senegal announced the abrupt departure of its CEO, Ibrahima Kane, yesterday. The carrier’s board appointed El Hadj Badara Fall as general manager, replacing Kane who arrived in 2019.
The now outgoing CEO was appointed less than a year after the launch of operations of Air Senegal, with no reasons being given by the airline for his dismissal.
The announcement also came on a day that the Blaise Dakar-based airline had developed its network (the last new route announced is to Accra in Ghana, and it flies outside the Covid-19 pandemic to the USA ), and had continued to modernize its fleet ( Airbus A220-300 ).
But Ibrahima Kane seems to pay for the many criticisms of Air Senegal’s customers, between hazardous punctuality, loss of luggage – and an incident on the ground at Paris-CDG which blocked his plane last week, not to mention passengers stuck 48 hours at Milan or the cancellation of a Dakar – Yaoundé flight during the CAN.
The new general manager is a former pilot, having worked 30 years at Air Senegal but also at Senegal Airlines and Royal Air Maroc, in addition to being an adviser to the Ministry of Tourism and Air Transport. El Hadj Badara Fall had also headed the local pilots’ union SPLS.