The airline, a subsidiary airline of Dublin-based Avia Solutions Group which launched in April 2024, will operate three weekly services between London Gatwick and Freetown International Airport on behalf of Air Sierra Leone from 16 June. The first flights took place on 26 and 27 April, coinciding with Sierra Leone’s Independence Day.
Alastair Willson, CEO of Ascend Airways, said, “It is a true honour to have operated the historic London Gatwick to Freetown flight on behalf of Air Sierra Leone. It took months of hard work to set this connection up, and we are looking forward to operating this much-needed route during the summer and winter season.”
Ascend Airways also operates routes on behalf of TUI Airways, with plans to expand with a Malaysian sister carrier.
Wondering what to do in Sierra Leone? You can discover the country’s slave trade history – and later its role as a settlement for freed slaves – in the capital Freetown at sites including Bunce Island, home to the remains of Sierra Leone’s largest slave fort, and the Old Wharf Steps, known as the ‘Freedom steps’, as the first place freed slaves would walk when arriving.
Outside of the city, you can book in of a tour of the 100-acre Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, which has been working with rescued chimps since 1988, or pay a visit to Tiwai Island, which is home to one of the richest populations of pygmy hippopotami as well as 11 resident primate species.
Other highlights include Gola Forest Reserve, which is home to 49 mammal species, 327 bird species, and more than 200 species of tree.
