Nigerian and Gold Coast governments that initially
amounted to around one-third of its revenue, but as
the airline strengthened and grew through the 1950s
this proportion diminished.
Unique Market
In contrast to many of its counterparts around the
world, WAAC found that instead of its traffic flows
showing passengers commuting from outlying towns
to the main commercial hubs to do business, the
reverse pattern was true: the majority of customers
travelled out from the major cities to the smaller
towns, returning at the end of the day. This allowed
WAAC to return its aircraft to base each night, easing
maintenance and avoiding allocating scarce resources to
distant locations for overnight stops, and was fortuitous
given that through to the mid-1950s only Lagos and
Kano, equipped with VHF and DME, were well set up
for night flying.
One downside to this type of operation, however,
was the very weak demand for travel on Sundays and,
with the restrictions on night flying, WAAC essentially
lived a less than optimum nine-hours-a-day, six-days-a-
week existence. In the latter half of the 1950s WAAC
developed a burgeoning freight business centred
around the delivery of newspapers, although the aircraft
typically returned to base empty. The network received
a welcome infusion of passenger volume from a twice-weekly
Lagos-London service, operated in conjunction with BOAC,
which alone generated greater passenger numbers than all of
WAAC’s other routes combined.
The airline had gained approval for a link to London over
the Sahara route, providing a weekly first class service with a
Boeing 377 Stratocruiser and a weekly tourist class service using
an Argonaut, both under charter using BOAC aircraft in a
modified livery, operated by BOAC flight crew but with
cabin crew drawn from both airlines.
As former colonies spread their wings and sought their
own airlines, WAAC ceased to exist on September 30,- In its place was a new company, WAAC (Nigeria)
Ltd – trading as Nigeria Airways – owned 51% by the
Nigerian government, 32% by Elder Dempster Lines and
16% by BOAC Associated Companies.
The new entity assumed ownership of its predecessor’s
fleet of eight DC-3s, eight Herons and one Dove, taking
on Nigerian domestic and regional routes. Earlier in
1958 Sierra Leone Airways was established to operate
local services from Freetown using de Havilland DH.89s
while newly formed Ghana Airways took on services
in that country and established its own link to London
with BOAC.
When Nigeria gained independence in October 1960
it was determined to be self-sufficient in commercial
air transport and to buy out the two foreign partners
(BOAC and Elder Dempster Lines). As such it formed
the new state-owned, Nigeria Airways.
The Herons were retired by 1960, leaving the DC-3s
to shoulder the entire operation – while ports of call
that were too small to justify the DC-3’s capacity were
dropped from the network.
The DC-3s remained on strength until replaced with
Fokker F27 Friendship turboprops in 1963.
In its 13 years of pioneering service, in some of the harshest
operating conditions, WAAC was subjected to several setbacks
but it laid the groundwork for a strong network of commercial
air service throughout West Africa.
The author would like to express his thanks to Jim Davies at
the British Airways Heritage Centre for providing access to the
British Airways archive.In addition to its own
f leet, at times WAAC
chartered Douglas
DC-3s from Aden
Airways to operate
‘Mecca Pilgrimage’
(Hadj) f lights from
Kano to Jeddah.
A ’
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