Review: Air Senegal A321 Economy Dakar-Nouakchott
Intro
Have you ever had a travel day where it feels like everything just goes wrong? Allow me to introduce this review of how a simple 50-minute flight turned into a 14-hour travel day. With delayed flights, canceled flights, being stranded on the side of the road outside of Dakar, and much more, this is a fun review.
There is a lot to unpack in this review. However, if I can provide a quick synopsis of this flight with Air Senegal, it would consist of three aspects. 1). The ground service is horrendous/non-existent. 2). Why on earth does their business class cabin have unlimited pitch? 3). Once onboard, the renovated A321 is quite a nice ride.
Let's get into this...
Route-Dakar (DSS)-Nouakchott (NKC)
Seat- 24A
Flight Number- HC205
Aircraft- Airbus A321
Date- June 2nd 2024
Flight Time: 41 Minutes
Price Paid- 198$
How I Booked
There are two main options when it comes to flying between Dakar and Nouakchott. You have daily service from Air Senegal and service from Mauritania Airlines. However, Mauritania Airlines might just be the most unreliable airline in the world, and with prices in line with each other, I chose the more well-known airline, Air Senegal.
Example flights:
My ticket, booked two weeks in advance, came out to 198$ one-way. As fate would turn out, the Mauritania Airlines flight was canceled that day, and my flight was delayed for an extended period of time.
Getting To Dakar Airport
Now, the fun of this review begins before I even get to the airport. Seeing as this was my first time flying out of Dakar, I decided to leave for the airport around 2 pm (4.5 hours before said departure).
After grabbing some pastries, I checked to see how long it would be to get to Blaise Diagne. An hour and 24 minutes? Are you taking the mickey?
With 19,000 CFA left to my name, I decided to try and bargain down the price of a taxi to fit my budget. I flagged a taxi down and asked, "How much to the airport?"
He kindly let me know, "6,000 CFA". Umm, that is really cheap, I thought, but said alright, let's go.
Well, the driver decided to take the backroads, presumably not to pay the tolls. It took about an hour due to the horrendous traffic around the outskirts of Dakar until we hit a roundabout. However, once we were at the said roundabout to enter the freeway to the airport, he decided he wanted 50,000 CFA, or he would drop me at the side of the roundabout. He was surprised when I said "airport".
I didn't have 50,000 CFA, nor am I paying 50,000 CFA. Absurd. So I stepped out and waited on the side of a roundabout with my luggage, attempting to flag down a taxi.
With no luck and 3 hours until departure, I just started laughing. Sometimes, you can view a situation as bad or just say, "It is what it is, and everything is as it should be."
That is when a man approached me, asking if he could help me out. He spoke English very well and flagged down someone driving a regular car to drive me to the airport. He did all of the negotiations, and I managed to end up in a car with a random guy who had a gold tooth and a gold necklace (a really cool guy, my type of vibe when I was a bit younger).
This man who helped me asked for my contact details, and still, to this day, I remember him. Additionally, he will occasionally reach out, asking how I am, not wanting anything in return. It is people like this that bring me faith in humanity. Truly an amazing soul.
20 minutes later, we arrived at Dakar Blaise Diagne Airport. In the end, it all turned out okay, thanks to this guy on the side of the road who helped me out.
Check-In
Once I arrived at the airport, it was about 4:15 pm in the afternoon. Perfect right? Since the flight is scheduled to depart in two hours and 15 minutes.
Before entering the area to check in, one must first pass through a security check. Interestingly, this was a "random check," and once they saw my US passport, they didn't check my bags.
As it would turn out, the flight had been delayed until 9 pm, and thus, check-in had been delayed until 6:30 pm. Well, I can't go back to Dakar, now what?
The best option was to stick around the airport, grab some food, and do some plane spotting.
Interesting to see a Lion Air plane parked up at Dakar.
Check-In: Take 2
6:30 pm came around, and they informed us that check-in had been delayed again.
To 7:00 pm.
To 7:30 pm
To 8:00 pm
And eventually, at 8:30 pm, the agents let us line up for check-in. The check-in process was extremely quick for me since no visa was needed for Mauritania, and I had no bags to check.
Next up came immigration and security. Comparatively to the arrivals process, this was night and day. 10 minutes tops.
As If It Couldn't Get Worse...
With our scheduled departure time now midnight (5.5 hours late), I had about 3 hours to kill at the airport. If you happen to like pizza, they have an amazing pizza place in the terminal that I highly recommend.
It's about 10$ for a pizza, but it's actually top drawer.
As I was sitting down and enjoying my pizza, I got a notification from Mauritanian Airlines (do not fly this airline) that my flight to Zouerat had been canceled the following morning.
It was critical that I made it to Zouerat that day, as I was on a time crunch due to an overloaded East African schedule. I had to quickly make other arrangements to get up to Zouerat from Nouakchott, but wow, this was infuriating.
Heading over to the gate at 11:30 pm, I encountered no plane! At this point, I am not even surprised that there is no plane.
I quickly spoke to the gate agent, who informed me that they didn't work for Air Senegal and they had no idea when the inbound plane would arrive. Air Senegal, Dakar is your hub, and you don't have gate agents for your airline??? Sometimes, you just have to laugh it off.
However, it wasn't all bad news. I ended up meeting two fellow New Yorkers at the gate who have since become quite good friends of mine. In addition, they were supposed to be on the same Mauritania flight and riding the same train from Zouerat-Nouadhibou as me. When I informed them that the flight was canceled, we ended up sharing a ride to Zouerat.
12:30 am came and went. This was getting ridiculous. Are we going to fly? The only way to check was to leave the gate area and walk over to the manager's office. Seeing as I didn't want to re-screen my bags, I left them with security.
Never in my life have I just simply walked behind the check-in desk and into the manager on duty's office. Absolutely hilarious. Thankfully, he informed me that the plane had just arrived and we would be boarding soon.
Boarding
Enough backstory; let's talk about this flight, huh?
Boarding eventually commenced at 1:15 am local time, and to say the whole crowd was relieved was an understatement.
Once onboard, I think the crew was just as tired as the passengers, to be honest. Embarking on a 41-minute red-eye at 1:15 am is not for the faint of heart.
The Seat/Cabin
Stepping onboard and turning right, I found a couple of rows of business class on this Air Senegal A321. For starters, I have to wonder how they turn a profit on this plane operating business class with the pitch that it has.
This has to be almost double the size of any other narrowbody business class I have seen. Then again, I am not sure if anything about this airline makes sense.
4 windows in a narrowbody seat??
My seat was 7A for today, about 4 rows back from the start of the economy. Seeing as there were 25 people on the flight tonight, it didn't really matter where I sat.
The cabin felt quite fresh. The seats were comfortable, and the legroom was okay. Compared to their A319, the A321 was very good once onboard.
Even a little USB plug at every seat. Hey, I needed this to charge my phone for the 900km drive later.
Departure
By 1;20 am, boarding was wrapped up. Yes, we boarded an A321 in 5 minutes, as it seemed everyone just wanted to get on their way. However, the captain came on to announce that the plane had a quote on quote, "a flat tire."
This is the point where you just laugh. I mean what else can you do.😂
By 1:45 am, we had pushed back, and we were wheels up to Nouakschott, on a less than 250-mile flight.
I could have driven from Dakar to Nouakchott and back in 14 hours...
Meal Service
Another pleasant aspect about Air Senegal is that they provide a suitable snack. Within 15 minutes after takeoff, every passenger was offered a muffin and a sandwich. While there was no choice, you were also able to request soft drinks/water/soda.
I didn't eat the sandwich or muffin, but it seemed edible from the outside😅 (I was half asleep when they offered it; otherwise, I would have declined).
IFE+WIFI
Unfortunately, Air Senegal is another area that needs to be seriously improved. For an A321 fleet that can operate flights over 4 hours long, Wifi and IFE need to be offered. Having none on this fleet is a big letdown.
But,,, what was with this remote on the middle armrest?😮.
That brings me to the last point: service. I don't think there is a need to write much about this part as the cabin crew was rushing to get this bird on its way. They did the best they could to dish out a meal and get everything wrapped up in 40 minutes.
Arrival
20 minutes after takeoff, the captain announced our initial descent into Nouakchott.
He expected "an on-time arrival" (I'm just joking. He didn't say that).
We ended up touching down at 2:24 am onto the singular runway that Nouakchott has. Not bad, Air Senegal, only 7 hours and 4 minutes late👍.
Once we pulled up to the Royal Air Maroc 737, I became one of those people who ran to the front. For one reason: I had to be in Zouerat by midday...
I'll touch on the visa process in a separate post so I can provide more detail for everyone looking to go...
Welcome to Country 93; we have made it to Mauritania!
Final Thoughts
Never would I have thought of writing this harsh of a conclusion, but what an absolute mess this airline is. Let's start with the good parts, the seats were modern, had plenty of pitch and thankfully, I had an empty rows (rows). Now for the bad parts: A 7-HOUR AND 4-MINUTE DELAY FOR A LATE INBOUND??? In addition, not having Air Senegal staff working the gate is horrendous for a main hub.
At the time, I was just laughing since it got to the point where I couldn't even be angry at the airline. However, at the end of the day, I got to my destination, but I can't recommend this airline unless you have to take them. Well, unless you are flying to Mauritania, the only worse airline might be Mauritanian Airlines😂.
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