MA60 Aircraft: Living Up To Expectations, Two Years On!

 The Chinese-made planes have manifestly heightened the performance of the national carrier, Camair-Co.

Evidence on the ground shows the performance of the Chinese-made Modern Ark planes, MA60, which have been flying the skies of Cameroon for two years now have so far been satisfactory. Two of the planes acquired by the national carrier, Camair-Co, in 2015 carried out their maiden flight from Douala to Yaounde on January 23, 2016.

They touched down the 4 Air Force base in Yaounde to a ceremony attended by top ranking officials of the Ministry of Transport, officials of Aviation Industry Corporation of China and top staff of the Chinese Embassy in Yaounde. The two planes began flying the skies of Cameroon after being grounded for one year, due to a controversy which the Minister of Transport, Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o described as baseless. Meanwhile, Cameroonian Armed Forces had been offered an MA60 aircraft as a gift from the people of China.

The acquisition of the MA60 planes by Camair-Co brought to five, the number of aircraft in the corporation’s fleet.  Intended to boost flights between the various regions of the country, the MA60 planes effectively increased the number of flights between Yaounde and Douala and later connected both cities to Bafoussam within its first year of operation. Last year, the planes began exploration new routes, prompting the reopening of the Bamenda Airport on July 20, 2017.

To the astonishment of naysayers who had questioned the capacity of the aircraft, both planes carried out 11 flights between Yaounde and Douala in one day when a major bridge linking Yaounde to Douala collapsed on October 20, 2016. The MA60 airplanes also played a vital role when Cameroon hosted the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in the towns of Yaounde and Limbe.

They ...