It seems that Air Senegal might use the A220-300 from its Dakar hub to Europe, potentially deploying the type to Barcelona. It seems it won't happen immediately, but it will take off this summer. It comes as the Senegalese flag carrier adds more flights to the Spanish city.

Dakar to Barcelona grows

Air Senegal has announced a Tuesday service to Barcelona, with the additional offering taking off on June 21st. It means the route will now be served 3x weekly. It comes as Lyon, served via Marseille, rises from 3x weekly to 4x from June 28th.

For now, all Barcelona flights will be operated by 120-seat A319s, with 18 business seats and 108 in economy. The schedule from June 21st is as follows, with all times local:

  • Dakar to Barcelona: HC423, 03:15-10:10 (4h 55m block time), Tuesdays, Thursdays, Sundays
  • Barcelona to Dakar: HC424, 11:25-14:25 (5h), Tuesdays, Thursdays, Sundays

Air Senegal launched Barcelona in December 2019, initially routing Dakar-Marseille-Barcelona-Dakar 2x weekly using the A330-900. Since then, Barcelona has been served in different ways: Dakar-Marseille-Barcelona-Dakar, Dakar-Barcelona-Marseille-Barcelona, Dakar-Casablanca-Barcelona, and non-stop in both directions. It has seen the A330, A321, and A319, and now another Airbus type will be deployed.

Read more: Air Senegal Plans Double Daily Paris Flights

Air-Senegal-Barcelona-2
Air Senegal focuses on point-to-point demand to/from Barcelona and has connections over Dakar (DSS) to Abidjan (ABJ), Bamako (BKO), Banjul (BJL), Conakry (CKY), and Nouakchott (NKC). Image: GCMap.

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The A220 will be used to Barcelona

While Barcelona will temporarily see the A319, it appears that it'll gradually transition to the A220. For now, Air Senegal has only one A220, registered 6V-AOA, delivered in December last year.

Air Senegal's A220-300s have 133 seats, with eight in business (38" seat pitch) and 125 in economy (32"). They'll provide far better fuel consumption than the A319 and 11% more seats per departure. Capacity is in-between the A319 and A321.

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Switching Barcelona from the A319 to the A220 will mean 16% more economy seats will be offered, but 56% fewer business seats. As the market mainly targets Senegalese and wider West African diaspora, it'll be interesting to see how route economics change with the new type and configuration.

Air Senegal has a further seven A220s on order. In time, might it use the smaller Airbus to launch new Europe routes, such as Geneva (previously announced but postponed), Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes, or Bologna? Booking data shows they all had 40,000 to 60,000+ passengers in 2019. Might it use the type to de-link Lyon from Marseille, so serving Lyon non-stop too?

The world's longest A220 routes

At 2,164 miles (3,483km), Dakar to Barcelona is a relatively long airport pair for the A220, but it is far from the longest. OAG shows that Air Austral's Saint-Denis to Chennai takes the top spot, as shown below. Notice Breeze's Providence to Los Angeles, which will take off on June 29th.

  1. Saint-Denis (Réunion) to Chennai: 2,870 miles (4,618km) by Air Austral
  2. Riga to Tenerife South: 2,803 miles (4,511km) by airBaltic
  3. Riga to Dubai: 2,684 miles (4,320km) by airBaltic
  4. Boston to San José (California): 2,689 miles (4,327km) by JetBlue
  5. Boston to Sacramento: 2,636 miles (4,242km) by JetBlue
  6. Providence to Los Angeles: 2,592 miles (4,172km) by Breeze
  7. Montréal to San Francisco: 2,539 miles (4,086km) by Air Canada
  8. Boston to Portland (Oregon): 2,537 miles (4,083km) by JetBlue
  9. Montréal to San José (Costa Rica): 2,521 miles (4,057km) by Air Canada
  10. Montréal to Puerto Vallarta: 2,473 miles (3,980km) by Air Canada

Have you flown the A220 yet? If so, share where and with what airline in the comments.