Régie Air-Afrique, from Algiers to Madagascar
Created by the French state in 1934, Régie Air-Afrique organized air routes serving French colonies in Africa. This plan follows the great diagonal: Paris, Marseille, Algiers, Sahara, Sahel, Congo, southern Africa, Mozambique and Madagascar.
The route naturally complements Imperial Airways: here, Africa is read through a French axis, first postal and then passenger, with long, isolated and highly varied legs.
The French colonial network before the war.
Connect French Africa through long flying days.
A French four-engine aircraft gives the color, even if later.
Heat, desert, rivers, forests, coasts and final island.
Understanding the flight
Régie Air-Afrique answered an administrative and postal need: organize a huge space where land distances were slow and difficult.
In simulation, the plan becomes a great geographical descent: Mediterranean, Sahara, Sahel, Congo basin, highlands, Mozambican coast and Madagascar.
Before departure
- Split the route by days, as in the original itinerary.
- On Saharan legs, prepare fuel, weather and diversion points before departure.
- Use morning departures in hot regions.
- Accept modern fields as practical equivalents when historical stops have disappeared.
Suggested route
France, Algeria and Sahara
Le Bourget, Marseille, Algiers, El Goléa, Aoulef and Gao set the great desert diagonal.
LFPB → LFML → DAAG → DAUE → GAGO
Sahel and Central Africa
Niamey, Zinder, Fort-Lamy, Fort-Archambault, Bangui, Lisala, Bumba and Stanleyville extend the route toward the Congo basin.
GAGO → DRRN → DRZR → FTTJ → FTTA → FEFF → FZGA → FZFU → FZIC
Congo and southern Africa
Kindu, Kabalo, Bukama, Elisabethville, Kabwe, Tete, Quelimane and Lumbo bring the route down toward the Indian Ocean.
FZIC → FZOA → FZRM → FZQA → FLKW → FQTT → FQQL → FQLU
Mozambique and Madagascar
Mozambique Island, Maintirano and Antananarivo close the great Air-Afrique route.
FQLU → FMMO → FMMI
Experience tips
The route is long: respect the days, they make the plan much more alive.
The contrast between desert, river, forest, ocean and highlands is the real luxury of this page.
Copyright Michel Lagneau 2013