ASKY Airlines Boeing 737 Economy Class Review

For a regional carrier based in Togo, ASKY Airlines punches well above its weight. Describing itself as “The Pan African Airline”, it has an impressive network spanning across western and southern Africa, connecting a large chunk of the continent with a full-service offering.

I recently had the opportunity to fly with ASKY Airlines on one of its 17 (yes, seventeen!) fifth-freedom routes. I couldn’t find many recent ASKY Airlines reviews when researching this trip, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But overall, I was impressed. My flight ran on time and the Ethiopian-registered Boeing 737 was modern and comfortable.

This review covers the Economy Class flight I took on ASKY Airlines’ Boeing 737-8, on the second leg of its Lomé-Dakar-Praia route.

Flight Details

Flight number	KP54
Route	Dakar (DSS) to Praia (RAI)
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-8 MAX
Class of travel	Economy
Seat number	12A
On-time performance	We arrived 10 minutes early
Star rating

The route

Flight Cost

I paid XOF137,200 (~AU$365) for a one-way “Economy Restricted” ticket from Dakar to Praia. I thought this was a bit on the expensive side, but it was comparable to the Air Senegal pricing and included baggage, seat selection and on-board refreshments.

The main reason for the high airfare was that more than half of the ticket price went to third-party taxes and fees. According to the fare breakdown on my ticket, around AU$190 worth of the following charges went to the Senegalese government and/or airport operator:

• Security Charge
• Passenger Service Charge
• Infrastructure Development Charge
• Civil Aviation Charge
• Immigration User Fee

Airport Experience

Pleasingly, ASKY Airlines’ standard Economy Class ticket includes two checked bags – something even Southwest Airlines in the USA is no longer offering. You even get an extra 5kg of luggage allowance if you check in online.

Most passengers seemed to be taking full advantage of the generous luggage allowance, and there was only one check-in counter open, so the line moved very slowly. Luckily, this wasn’t a completely full flight and some of the passengers would be continuing on from Lomé, so there wasn’t a full 737 worth of passengers waiting for the single check-in agent.

There was also a bit of a queue for immigration. Once through, there was just enough time left to visit the Top Kapi Lounge.

This isn’t a standard inclusion with an Economy ticket, but you can get in with a Priority Pass membership. If you do have Priority Pass access, it’s worth stopping in as the lounge was quite nice and had great buffet food and drink options.

Boarding started early and we managed to depart a few minutes ahead of schedule.

The Hard Product

ASKY has an all-737 fleet, with a mix of Boeing 737-800s and newer 737-8 MAX jets. My flight was originally scheduled to be operated by the former, but I ended up flying on the latter. It didn’t really matter as every ASKY Airlines plane has the same configuration with 16 Business Class and 138 Economy seats.

There were four rows of recliner Business Class seats in a standard 2-2 layout, with lots of legroom. Behind this, the Economy cabin had a standard 3-3 layout with fairly standard leather seats.

This Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft had a modern Boeing Sky Interior with pleasant mood lighting and large overhead bins.

I found the ASKY Airlines Economy seat comfortable and the legroom decent.

For extra legroom, it would be hard to go past the front row of Economy Class. Row 11 is at a bulkhead, but there’s oodles of space for your legs.

There’s no Wi-Fi or any other sort of in-flight entertainment, other than a Calebasse Magazine which was in some of the seat pockets (but missing from many).

As well as a map showing the ASKY Airlines route network, the Calebasse Magazine listed the airline’s entire timetable in full – a bit like Qantas used to do.

ASKY Airlines’ fascinating business model

I’m probably a lot more interested in this kind of thing than most people, so I had a good read of the schedules. I find the airline’s business model interesting and very clever, as it is heavily banked for optimal connections through its hub in Lomé, Togo.

Almost all of ASKY’s flights are scheduled to arrive in Lomé around 11am-12pm, and all the departures from Lomé are around 1-2pm. So, every afternoon, ASKY sends its 737s to many different cities in Africa – with most flights running as multi-stop services to maximise the number of airports served with just 13 aircraft. Those aircraft then overnight at outstations, with the planes and their crew returning to Lomé the next morning with the next wave of connecting passengers.

This scheduling means that ASKY can connect pretty much all of its destinations to every other destination on the same day, with short transit times. This also means ASKY has barely any red-eye flights, which you often have to take when using other airlines like Royal Air Maroc for intra-African travel.

As an added bonus, ASKY’s intra-African flights connect perfectly to Ethiopian Airlines’ Lomé-New York and Lomé-Washington DC services. Ethiopian is a partner airline of ASKY.

The Soft Product

We took off slightly ahead of schedule from Dakar and headed west towards Cape Verde.

During the flight, the cabin crew served a snack and offered a choice of complimentary drinks, including water, juice, soft drinks, beer and wine. The white wine was French and quite nice. The small cupcake and biscuits were nothing special, but to be honest were more than I expected to receive on this hour-long hop.

The cabin crew were really professional and well-dressed. They spoke French and English fluently and made all announcements in both languages.

During boarding, a few passengers tried to sit in seats that they were not allocated to, including a few in Business Class. The crew were onto this quick smart, and also kept their cool with a particularly argumentative passenger.

During the flight, several passengers listened to audio on their phones on loudspeaker. The crew did ask one person to use headphones, but only after another passenger complained.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to more than 100 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.