South African Airways (SAA), the national carrier of South Africa, has launched a new twice a week service from Accra to Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire. The Abidjan flight is an added extension of the airline’s Johannesburg-Accra flights on Tuesdays and Fridays. The airline can now serve passengers flying between theses cities in either direction. “For us in Accra, this is a new service that SAA has introduced in addition to the Johannesburg flights,” Gloria Yirenkyi, Country Manager of SAA told the B&FT in an interview. The Accra-Abidjan flight is scheduled to depart Accra at 18:10hrs and arrive in Abidjan at 19:10. It then leaves Abidjan at 20:10hrs and arrives in Accra at 21:10hrs. Madam Yirenkyi said SAA’s evening schedule on the Accra-Abidjan route is one of the best in the market. “We bring to the market an evening schedule that allows our corporate and business clientele a full business-day’s activity before checking in on the flight. We also have a very convenient schedule for connecting Dakar flights from Abidjan. “There are currently no direct flights to Dakar, Senegal and the SAA schedule connects perfectly with the Air Senegal schedule from Abidjan to Dakar.” SAA’s state-of-the-art Airbus 330-200, an evening schedule and excellent on-board service make the airline very competitive in the growing aviation market within the West African sub-region. Madam Yirenkyi said SAA plans to expand its African network as part of its growth strategy for the year. “For West Africa, this is the second route that has been opened. The first was Cotonou from Johannesburg via Pointe Noire. We already cover Dakar and Nigeria. There are plans to actually launch a new market. We are an African airline and we focus on Africa. We have a global reach to Europe, America and Asia but our focus is to be a leading carrier on the African continent,” she added. South African Airways (SAA) -- voted the best airline in Africa 2011 for the 10th year in a row by UK global aviation research organisation Skytrax -- serves 27 destinations on the African continent.