Air Senegal builds UAE–West Africa freight links
Sonia Sali
Airglow Aviation has been appointed as the General Sales Agent (GSA) for Air Senegal in the UAE. Under the GSA agreement, Airglow Aviation is responsible for developing and managing Air Senegal's cargo sales activities across the UAE. This includes commercial representation, cargo bookings, rate coordination, customer engagement with freight forwarders and logistics partners, and ongoing customer support.
“We will assist with documentation and operational coordination to help shipments move smoothly through the network,” said Rohit Thakwani, CEO, Airglow Aviation. Since Air Senegal currently operates as an offline carrier in the UAE, a central part of the role is to build reliable interline solutions that connect the UAE with Air Senegal's network, while establishing a dedicated local commercial presence and stronger market awareness for the airline.
The appointment aims to create flexibility across DXB, DWC and Sharjah depending on routing, capacity, handling requirements and interline connectivity. While DXB supports a large base of scheduled international cargo flows, DWC offers strong freighter and logistics infrastructure, and Sharjah is a valuable gateway with competitive operating economics. Access to all three airports allows the appointment to design solutions around each individual shipment rather than restricting the market to a single gateway. This flexibility is particularly important for offline cargo movements into West Africa, where routing options and connection times can vary significantly by shipment type.
Building interline capacity
Air Senegal’s cargo capacity for the UAE market will depend on the routing and operating carrier used for the first sector out of the UAE. Airglow Aviation will develop interline solutions through major gateways, particularly Paris CDG, from where Air Senegal connects cargo into Dakar and onward across its West African network. Air Senegal's wide-body operations offer stronger cargo capability on selected sectors, while regional connections carry different payload limitations. “Rather than committing to a fixed weekly tonnage at this early stage, our focus is on building dependable, scalable capacity with partner airlines and matching the most suitable routing to each shipment and destination,” he added.
Developing UAE–West Africa volumes
As this is a newly established offline GSA operation, the UAE market is being developed from a relatively modest existing base rather than established direct-service volumes. Airglow would prefer not to disclose a specific tonnage target while interline arrangements and capacity allocations are still being finalised.
The objective is to progressively convert existing UAE–West Africa cargo flows onto the Air Senegal network. Dubai remains an important consolidation and re-export hub for Africa, and volumes are expected to grow steadily as routing options, transit reliability and market awareness strengthen. The focus is on a long-term build rather than a short-term target.
The potential for growth also depends on the type of cargo that can be moved reliably through the network. There is long-term potential across a range of commodities moving from West Africa into the UAE. As an offline operation today, however, time-sensitive cargo such as perishables and seafood is more difficult to move reliably given the variability in interline transit times.
In the near term, stronger potential is seen in general cargo and niche export products that are less transit-sensitive and can use Dubai as a redistribution hub. The main constraints are consistency of airfreight capacity, interline transit reliability, cold-chain requirements and pricing.
On the UAE–West Africa lane, the cargo mix is largely general cargo, electronics and spare parts. The main challenge is limited direct connectivity, and even where it exists, it is restricted to certain airports.
Much of the cargo therefore has to move via transit hubs, which adds time and complexity. Pricing on direct options is high, and while transit routings offer some flexibility, capacity remains limited and pricing stays elevated across the board.
These connectivity constraints also affect the movement of more time-sensitive commodities. As routing and connectivity strengthen, perishables and other time-sensitive commodities should become increasingly viable over time. Addressing the connectivity gap is therefore central to the strategy, with Airglow actively working to bring more capacity into the market to meet growing demand.
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