Review: Air Cote d'Ivoire A320 Economy Abidjan-Dakar
Intro
Welcome to the second leg of my adventure with Air Cote d'Ivoire. I was extremely excited about this flight for many reasons, but the main one was trying out a different aircraft to the one I was on before, the standard A320-200. This would also be the day I eclipsed country number 92 (as I don't count the Ivory Coast since it was a stopover only)
Overall, this flight was quite decent. I was happy to see a full meal provided on an 1100-mile flight, and the wifi did work! However, there was one downside...
Route-Abidjan (ABJ)-Dakar (DSS)
Seat- 24F
Flight Number- HF700
Aircraft- Airbus A320
Date- June 1st 2024
Flight Time: 2 Hour 21 Minutes
Price Paid- 627$ (LOS-ABJ-DSS)
How I Booked
The continent of Africa has to be the most expensive continent to fly around. On the day I had to be in Dakar, there were no direct flights from Lagos. Thus, the most efficient and cheapest option would be to book a flight between Lagos and Abidjan, continuing onto Dakar for an hour on the Ivory Coast.
Here is where the price hiked: I didn't know if I needed a visa to transit in Abidjan, so I reached out to different people and the embassy before booking. When I came back to book 10 days before departure, the price was 627$ in economy. Needless to say, nobody knew/answered...
The other reasonable option you have when it comes to flying between the two cities is with ASKY connecting through Lome, but this was over 1000$ for my dates at the time🥴.
Transit
Once arriving from Lagos onboard the A320neo, there was a very lengthy transit line. With 13 minutes until boarding, I was beginning to get a bit worried about how I was going to make my flight.
10 minutes passed, and I informed an agent that I was on the Dakar flight. They quickly ushered me to the front of the queue as the plane was apparently just beginning boarding.
Immigration is not done for transit passengers, but you must re-clear security. They had one line for security for over 150 passengers. Yes, one line...
Abidjan Airport is a very small place with no more than 15 gates. Needless to say, I was able to find my departure gate for today within a couple of minutes, just as they began boarding.
Boarding
Boarding commenced promptly at 12:30 for a 1 pm departure. Originally, this was scheduled for 12:20 p, but as an ongoing trend with Cote d'Ivoire, they put the boarding times a little early.
The A320 for today: TU-TSV
It was busy in the jetbridge; deplaning and boarding took forever with Air Cote d'Ivoire.
The Seat/Cabin
The seats on the A320 are vastly similar to the A320neo. The only difference between the two is that the cabins on the A320 are a little more dated, which makes sense, as these planes are about 3 years older than the Neo.
These pictures were taken upon deplaning
The economy cabin still doesn't feature seatback entertainment...
My seat, 24F, was a decent seat to be in. The pitch remained at 32 inches, the recline wasn't too bad, and not once did I feel cramped. The one thing I noticed was how scratched up the seatbelts were.
For a moment there, I thought that I might have lucked out with an empty row. However, the last two people on the plane sat down in the two adjacent seats😞. Not that it was a problem, thanks to the spacious legroom on Air Cote d'Ivoire.
Departure
By 1:00 pm local time, the cabin doors were closed, and we were ready for pushback. The captain came on to announce our flight time of 2 hours and 35 minutes over to Dakar and expected a smooth flight.
We pushed back a moment later.
Everything was going great, and we were almost ready to go. The spoiler had been checked, and the flaps had been set.
But we held...
And held...
15 minutes later, the captain came on to announce that we had to return to the gate to run a couple of checks. 😞
For the next hour, the flight deck kept us informed regarding what was going on with the plane. Obviously, something like this happens all the time around the world, and it shows the safety precautions in the aviation field.
An hour and 15 minutes after our scheduled departure, it was time for round 2.
A very short 7-minute taxi later, with no incoming traffic, we were wheels up to Dakar (country 92) through a rainy day on the Ivory Coast.
Meal Service
Once through the clouds, it's as if there was a shift in life overall. From delays and horrendous rain in Abidjan to beautiful weather and good food😉.
On our way up to cruising altitude, the cabin crew snapped into action to serve a full meal to passengers. There were two options to choose from, and once I heard beef, I already knew what I would be eating.
One of the flight attendants serves the meal while the other one offers drinks to passengers.
The beef and potato dish was quite delicious, and the red wine was the perfect way to accompany the meal. Passengers could ask for more than one drink, which I found to be thoughtful.
IFE+Wifi
If you remember, in the previous report, I had problems with accessing the wifi and in-flight entertainment. The Wi-Fi had 20 GB of upload per second and 85 GB of download per second.
I'm joking; wifi was exorbitant when it came to pricing 😅.
Look, if you really need wifi, then it is there, but 18$ for 100mb is absurd.
There was also basic IFE, but the Wifi prices threw me off the internet system very quickly. Plus, how often do I get to look out of the window over beautiful Guinea?
Seeing as the wifi price was exorbitant, I decided to check out the route map which proved to be quite intriguiung. Before going to Africa, I knew there was plenty of French speaking countries (I studied for 14 years and still no zilch). However, what I didn't realize is just how much French is spoken in West Africa. Additionally, did you know that there are over 250 dialects in the DRC...
Call me sheltered all you want, I just wasn't taught that😞
Arrival
With checking out all of the inflight entertainment, and the meal service, it was time to descend into country number 92. Just shy of 4 pm local time, the captain came on to announce our descent into Dakar, with our touchdown occuring in approximately 30 minutes.
The captain was pretty much spot on, as we touched down at 4:29 pm local time in the new Dakar airport.
Another amazing landing. If it were up to me, Air Cote d'Ivoire might win an award for some of the best landings I've experienced.
It was a very short taxi over to our gate where we pulled up next to an ASKY 737. Yeah, the one from Lome, that wasn't delayed😂.
Once deplaning, it was off to immigration. Since I was almost at the back, and needed to use the toilet, I ended up in the very back of a very, very slow line. Oh my gosh, out of all of the airports I went to in Africa, Dakar was the worst immigration. However, it was also the best later...
An hour later, I had cleared baggage claim. Not that it mattered, since a simple customs check took another 30 minutes... HUH??
Exiting the airport, you will find a taxi stand with taxi drivers attempting to rip off tourists. While I do understand that the airport is over 50km away from West Downtown, I obviously know that the "30,000 Francs flat rate" is above what the actual flat rate.
After some back and forth, I managed to get it down to 20,000 Francs
We ended up pulling over for gas about a mile away from the airport (lol) 😂.
Final Thoughts
While on one side, the connection in Abidjan is a bit of a mess, and we were delayed leaving due to a mechanical/technical issue, I really did enjoy this flight. The flight deck kept us well informed during the delay, and they did their best to make up some time.
In terms of in flight, Air Cote D'ivoire is quite a nice "boutique" airline. The food is decent, free wine is offered to economy passengers, and there is Wifi onboard the A320 fleet, albeit expensive. The two inches of pitch compared to the likes of an ET narrowbody goes a long way in being comfortable. Lastly, I found the service to be A-OK, I don't expect over-the-top service when flying economy seeing as it harder to fulfill wants of 140 odd passengers compared to 16. However, every interaction I had with the crew on both flights seemed friendly.
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