Tunisair will launch flights to New York JFK Airport in 2019, chief executive Elyes Mnakbi confirmed during an industry conference in Sharjah this week.
The flag-carrier wants to transform Tunis into a sixth-freedom hub linking poorly-connected African cities with the rest of the world.
“We have a lot of demand from [passengers in] African countries to get them to Tunis, and then to go to other countries in Europe and Montreal,” Mnakbi explained, referring to the flag-carrier’s only existing long-haul destination. “Maybe when we will open New York it will be an opportunity for African people to go there.”
Tunisair has an outstanding narrow-body order for five A320neos and expects to receive three units in 2019 followed by the final pair in 2020.
Those aircraft will facilitate expansion of the short-haul network, with management aiming to grow their African footprint at a rate of two routes per year.
Cotonou in Benin will become the next addition on December 13th, followed by Douala in Cameroon and N'Djamena in Chad in 2018. The expanding fleet will then be used to open Lagos in Nigeria and Accra in Ghana in 2019, while the targets for 2020 have yet to be decided.
Tunisair is likely to place an order for “two or three” Bombardier CSeries, Mnakbi confirmed, pending the approval of its government shareholder.
