Air Afrique

Air Afrique

We thought we'd give Mr Gaddafi & his 'jewel of Africa' the benefit of the doubt, it must be said it was cheap as well.

Firstly, the take off was delayed, with no announcements, when we asked at the desk they just said 'we will go when we go'?!

Once on the plane we noticed it is empty, so we had extra space, but it looks like they failed to clean properly, my table was covered in food smears, when I asked for a wet towel, to wipe it off, I was told to; 'just relax man, just chill'... I know!! It was almost funny how clueless they were! Don't get me wrong, very friendly, but no idea of customer service or professionalism.

The quality of the food seems to be dependant of the airport you last left, leaving SA or the UK the food was ok, with a N. Afr. theme, but when we left Tripoli the food was inedible, like you've never seen! Based on my past experiences I didn't even bother asking for something else.

Funny, but surprising points are; the flights are dry, so they only serve warm juice or soda (I don't know why either), no alcoholic drinks. Also the movies are heavily censored, at first it's quite amusing, but it gets irritating after awhile. Woman's shoulders are blurred out & they even censor out all references to alcohol or gambling, but blood, death & murder are all good?!

Lastly, Trip. Airport is awful, you can barely breath for all the smoke & there's no organisation, it's like going back it time. Wherever you look there are smoking men standing in leather jackets just being difficult when they feel like it. The toilettes are an experience, I'll just say go on the plane before you get off... You have to wonder to what standard the airport safety services are like! Definitely no jewel! I'll be paying the extra £50 next time!!

Service in the airport was haphazard but reasonably friendly. No announcements were made in english and we had top keep asking how much longer the delay would be. The flight was late to take off.

The plane was very new. However even though the aircraft was almost empty the cabin crew were unable to provide blankets after three request. When we sat down there were no blankets, headset, magazines sick bags etc. The crew seemed to be unsure of how to control the lighting. They served up the food and then all settled into the business class cabin for a nap.

The seats although quit adequate in size where not comfortable. Too hard. The announcements were in broken English. The movies were very few and spoiled by very excessive blurring of female arms and legs. Ridiculous!

Plane was clean as it should be because it was brand new.

We flew from N'djamena to Brussels via Tripoli on Air Afrique. The service was good and the price very comptetive at 470000 CFA compared with close to 1000000 cfa with air france (direct flight).

We had to stopover night in Tripoli and found the people there very helpful and honest.

There was a wait of about 6 hours at Tripoli while transit visas were obtained. These are needed in order to leave the airport.