The Ministry of Defence of the Ivory Coast has signed a firm order for one C295 medium transport aircraft.
The aircraft, in transport configuration, will enhance the capabilities of the Ivory Coast Air Force with its proven record of excellent performance in hot and harsh conditions, and affordable maintenance and operational costs say Airbus.
The aircraft will replace an aging Soviet Antonov An-26 transport aircraft, so the above claim isn’t just a marketing claim.
Bernhard Brenner, Airbus Defence and Space Head of Marketing & Sales, said:
“The C295 has proven its outstanding capabilities in the exceptionally harsh sub-Saharan Africa operating environment. The aircraft will be a game changer for Ivory Coast and we feel very proud to welcome a new operator into our C295 family.”
With this new order Ivory Coast becomes the 28th nation worldwide to operate the C295. Airbus Defence and Space has to date sold 91 aircraft to 17 countries in Africa.
Airbus say that there is a growing fleet of C295s in the North and West Africa region with up to 35 C295s contracted by Egypt, Algeria, Ghana and Mali.
They bought 1! Hahahahahaha But what’s not funny is how Spain builds so much more big planes and warships than the UK!
Does it build ships as big as QE or Astute?
Does the size really matter when it’s such a small number being built anyway. Look I love what the UK builds I just wish we would built and exported more big ticket items like warships and Aeroplanes maybe even submarines I’m sure we could design and build conventionaly powered submarines for export.
They assemble lots of aircraft… The wings for the a400m for Iinstance are made in the UK. Many of the engine parts are UK made. Other parts of the aircraft are made in other countries…. They are then all sent to Spain for final assembly. I would not count that as Spain making the aircraft as such any more than I would claim that I made all out IKEA furniture…
That analogy is perfect! Made me chuckle.
Hopefully this year Ireland will be ordering at least 2 (be great if we got 3) before our 2 235’s fall out of the sky.
There is already one Ivorian AF C295M at Seville TU-VMC. The two “ageing AN-26” (TU-VMA,B) were only delivered to Abidjan last Summer!