Afriqiyah Airways review by E Smeeton

31 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Have just flown to and from Tripoli. They were late leaving Gatwick on the outward journey due to missing passengers and luggage having to be removed but check-in etc was fine, although we only had hand luggage. We returned on a new A320 Airbus. We left Tripoli on time and touched down at Gatwick on the dot. The service was fine and the food was acceptable.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Krishin Advani

9 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Flew to Cotonou from London on 06/01/08. Check-in a breeze, although one lady who was flying to Douala was carrying around 8-10 oversize suitcases, which slowed matters down. But we were never told of a horrendous 5hr delay! Flight delayed till 2.30pm - not a good start. Boarding was class, and this was one of their new Airbus A320s, so quite happy. Inflight entertainment is quite simple, 3-4 English movies, 3-4 Arabic movies, 7 music channels and children's channel. For a 3hour flight, I can't complain. Service was good, inflight food a slight howler. I was given the choice between chicken and beef - I asked for chicken and was given 150% vegetarian! A bit low - then asked for beef - since they didn't collect my veg tray - had two lunches! Arrival in Tripoli was late, but our Cotonou sector was delayed by 2hrs - the flight was still in Cairo at the time! We should have been airborne by 18.40 from Tripoli; but instead left around 22.30. We arrived in Cotonou at 3.30am, more convalescent with Royal Air Maroc timing. Aircraft on this sector was tired, no entertainment, and lighting was depressing. I am surprised though. I believe Afriqiyah are currently going through a rough patch with the West African flights it seems. From Tripoli to Cotonou, only 11 passengers in total boarded. Last night's flight to Cotonou had 14 passengers. The sector is operating under a heavy loss. The reason I foresee is that their timings from Tripoli are based around leaving about 8am Tripoli time, hence getting into Europe around 11am/12pm European time. Passengers miss their morning appointments and in some cases, their transit flights. This is my assumption. Anyone else have a technical reason? The fare was amazing - around £350 for a 3 week ticket. Can't be blamed. Despite a monumental setback on this flight, and it being empty, I'd still fly them.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Chris Simpson

5 October 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

I was amazed at the ticket price, around FCFA300,000 Abidjan-Gatwick return, less than 300 pounds sterling. This is extremely good value given prices charged by other carriers for West Africa-Europe trips. I expected a fairly bare bones service, but food was adequate, if unspectacular. I was impressed by the friendliness of the service at Tripoli, with staff making sure tricky connections were met on time. Delays on the return home, particularly at Gatwick, were irksome and a bit more information would have been welcome. Inflight movie choice was fair, but no audio!

Afriqiyah Airways review by E Kofi-Opata

12 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Ghana to Gatwick via Tripoli. The trip was smooth but the aircraft looked tired. Food was not too great. Tripoli to Gatwick the stewards did what they were supposed to, and then were chatting at rear the whole time. There were not enough blankets, even though the flight was not full.

Afriqiyah Airways review by S Ngantu

11 July 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Gatwick to Doula via Tripoli and Bangui. Outbound flight was 40 minutes late and inbound we spent a day in Tripoli in a rather nice hotel paid for by the airline as there was no onward flight from Tripoli to Gatwick. It was a welcome break as we were still on holiday and rather enjoyed our shopping in Tripoli. Overall this airline is practical if you are not in a hurry, are laid back, do not enjoy onboard entertainment and don't like stewards and stewardesses fussing over you. It is also cheap and the food is okay which are added bonuses.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Richard Green

22 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

I recently flew London-Accra and back from Lome. I found the overall experience to be surprisingly pleasant. The ground staff at Gatwick were friendly and efficient. The aircraft were clean and tidy, and left and arrived on time. It's true that the seat pitch makes for cramped flights, but low loads on all four flights meant that people could stretch out. The crew's attitude was very patchy however - some great, some ok, but most pretty disinterested. The food was fine - I've certainly had a lot worse - and the fare was a good deal cheaper than the more established carriers. I wouldn't hesitate to fly them again.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Philip Earl

28 May 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Gatwick - Tripoli return. Cost £252, so good value but definitely no frills, you get what you pay for. Food average - better on return - hearty breakfast. Cabin staff do just what is necessary and no more. Left bang on time on return and landed bang on time at Gatwick. 90 minute delay going out not due to airline but absorbing Ghanan passengers from another carrier who cancelled their flight and took an age to sort out the ticketing. Arrived 55 mins late. Near riot at Tripoli when Libyan customs initially wanted to send them back to London but eventually relented and let them into transit! No worse experience overall than many with Flybe who I use frequently and whose customer relations border on the laughable at times.

Afriqiyah Airways review by R Greco

25 April 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Good overall. Flew from Tripoli to Bangui - then return with layover in Cameroon. Clean enough - mostly empty flight. Food pretty good actually. Friendly enough staff - answered questions and help us transit through. Was expecting it to be pretty shoddy from, but was pretty good. I would fly again if needed.

Afriqiyah Airways review by A Docherty

15 April 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

I recently travelled Gatwick to Tripoli and back on this airline. in general the flights were good, the outbound departure was 10 minutes late and the return was 30 minutes late, both arrived about on schedule. The aircraft was an A320, it was clean and well presented, the meals were average to good and the cabin service was quiet and efficient. My only big misgiving was the seat pith which was frankly far too close for anything more than a 1 hour flight. Both flights were carrying very low load factors, the return flight had just 20 passengers! If this airline wants to survive and expand it would do well to increase the seat pitch and advertise the fact as a sales feature, If these flights were anything to base an average load factor on then they would have nothing to lose by increasing the pitch. Would I fly with them again?, if they improve the pitch, then yes.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Adrian Pitt

12 April 2007   Customer Trip Rating : n/a

I use Afriqiyah for my trips to/from Libya - 6 to 8 times a year. It's pretty much like a scruffy version of Easyjet with the staff being even less helpful but with assigned seats and grub thrown in. If you can get over the completely disinterested staff and take it for what it is, it's perfectly acceptable and the best bit is that it gets you in to Gatwick mid morning. I have always found the food very good but different(!) - the lamb Kuftas are fab. Prices are dirt cheap and it leaves/arrives from/to Gatwick which is a Billion times better than that hell hole called Heathrow so it's worth a bit of pain just to avoid that. Check in at both ends is OK to good and the Tripoli bunch are usually very charming and polite. Their record for leaving/arriving on time is awful - they are always late but that gets you in to the swing of things very nicely for the rest of the trip. Overall, don't look or think too deeply, go with the flow, try not to take it too seriously and you won't be disappointed.

Afriqiyah Airways review by M Ghariani
29 March 2007

I am the customers relations manager in Afriqiyah Airways. I do follow what you read on this site and appreciate very much your feedback, we are in the process of modernising our fleet by adding 2 brand new Airbus A320-200 on Sep 07 that will offer you a top class interior (dedicated C class with full inflight entertainment Audio Video on demand AVOD @ 40" pitch, reclinable leather seats) and an upgraded Y class of 32" pitch leather seats with seat back monitors AVOD also, a ll touch screens, plus other cabin enhancements offered by the manufacturer. Please continue to comment on our services and we will be pleased to improve our services to meet your satisfaction

Afriqiyah Airways review by Paul Harvey
20 March 2007

LGW to Tripoli return. Outbound flight left a little late but arrived on time, flight very empty, Food reasonable, plane interior very tired, cabin service ok. Inbound flight left 30 mins late and arrived 30 mins late. Food adequate, plane tired, cabin service poor - service staff were more interested in sitting at the back playing with their mobile phones than dealing with passengers. They kept one toilet locked closed until quite a long queue developed in the isle when they reluctantly opened the second rear toilet (the queue of passengers was obviously interfering with their mobile phone games).

Afriqiyah Airways review by Pawel Zdziarski
19 October 2006

London-Accra-London via Tripoli. The outbound flight from London was delayed 5 hours, the return flight from Accra was almost on time. Other than that I cannot find many reasons to complain - don't expect 5-star service (although neither food was bad nor staff unfriendly) and it is worth the (very cheap) price.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Krishin Advani
16 September 2006

I decided to book this airline for the second time a year later (see my first report below) - also to Cotonou. A good journey save for zero inflight entertainment. It seems their standards have remained the same throughout. Last time I witnessed torn seats and dirty windows. This time, seats looked clean, but windows remained dirty. The fare was by cheaper than Air France. My tickets arrived the day after I booked them, and check-in at Gatwick airport was quick and organised. No squirmishes and no queue-jumping, as was noticed at the next counter which handled Ghana International's flight to Accra. I was luckily one of the first to check-in, and all procedures went smoothly. We boarded on time, and the flight was around 85% full, and seats were assigned. Food was well made and unbelievably, the same as last year! Arrival in Tripoli was bang on target - flight to Cotonou left on time, and this was free seating, though no one jumped for seats, even though the fight was packed. At Tripoli, do make sure you board early for the best seats if you are continuing your journey into West Africa. This leg was operated by Nouvelair of Tunisia. Bags arrived speedily in Cotonou and I was driving to town within 20mins of descending from the aircraft. At the most, they should provide some sort of entertainment like aisle televisions from the ceiling and at least a small selection of music channels, though with flights only being around 3hrs, I guess passengers would rather sleep. I had the opportunity to sample their first inflight magazine though spoiled by my copy which had the review of Ouagadougou torn out. This airline does not provide blankets and pillows, so if you are unsure about the coldness in the cabin, make sure you carry one set with you. A warning though - try and get hold of landing cards before you fly on this airline - as to date, they don't distribute landing cards. I had one already so I could jump the queue! You get what you pay for!

Afriqiyah Airways review by José Bernaerts
10 June 2006

Amsterdam to Accra. Nothing wrong with it at all. Nice staff, very good food, and low pricing. Our transit in Tripoli was okay, helpful people who were doing their very best to do the paperwork fast. My only remark was that on the way back, from Accra to Tripoli/Amsterdam, the gate closed a good 2.5 hours before departure. The lady just told us we were too late, we should have checked in three hours before departure, and then she closed her desk and walked away. So I went to the Afriqiyah office in the building next door, where a friendly manager told me we could still get on the flight, the only thing was he couldn't arrange a meal abroad for us anymore. As it was 11 pm this was no problem at all for us and without any further hassle we flew home. Afriqiyah - great prices, so give them a chance.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Akeem Hassan
15 March 2006

I had the same experience, though a bit better in the sense that we got to Gatwick in time. My only concern was that we remained standing for the three hours transit in Tripoli under the pretence that they are checking papers. The entertainment is nothing to write home about.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Janet Tonks
21 January 2006

After our dreadful ordeal and 8 day luggage delay, we found several items missing. The last straw for us was being booked on a non existent return flight for 6th January, despite confirming twice with the airline. Following comments from Amanda on 14th January and Aba on 17th January, I am so relieved Dennis and I managed to come home standby with Ghana International, who were excellent. I really don't think we were up to taking much more from Afriqiyah Airways. This should be a 0 star airline.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Aba Asaam
17 January 2006

I had a similar experience as Amanda as I travelled on the same return flight from Accra on the 7/1/06, the only difference being some of us had to go to Zurich from Tripoli when we missed the transit flight to London. We were delayed for another 2 and half hours at Swiss airport then finally were sent to Heathrow instead of Gatwick. I got 1 of my bags after 4 days, the second bag I don't know whats happened to it to date. I have tried both airports, emailed and tried all the numbers for their lost and found office with little joy.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Amanda Osae-Duodu
14 January 2006

Afriqiyah Airways gave me the worst air travel experience in my life. I started my journey to Accra via Tripoli 3 hours late with no apology or explanation. We were supposed to have a direct flight from Tripoli to Accra - we were held in Tripoli for 4 hours then told we would be diverting to Abidjan before Accra. On my return ticket it had the date of travel as 06/01/06. I got to the airport only to be told there was no flight until the 07/01/06. We were delayed for four hours again. We were then told we had to divert to Abidjan before Tripoli. By the time we got to Tripoli our transit plane to London Gatwick had already left. We were delayed for 5 hours, while they arranged a flight with British Airways. We were then sent to London Heathrow instead of Gatwick - where our people had been waiting for us. The last straw was when our baggage never arrived until 2 days later.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Dennis Howitt
10 January 2006

We have just arrived back from Accra having had an alarming travel experience with Afriqiyah Airlines. Our holiday was ruined by this company. To keep the story short, the company lost all of our baggage for eight days and we did not even have a toothbrush on arrival. They did little effective to help us and made a number of promises which were not met. For example, one day we waited in their office in Accra to speak to the Ghana Area Manager. After eight hours the staff simply left at closing time, turned off the electricity including the air conditioning, and left us alone in the building for an hour or so. At about 6.30 pm they returned with two police officers claiming that we had refused repeated requests to leave the building. We had NOT been asked to leave. The police officers realising that the problem lay with Afriqiyah Airways persuaded the airline to provide us with hotel accommodation at the Airline's expense. Other offers they made were rapidly reneged on so be very careful when listening to what they say. Eventually we collected our baggage on Boxing Day. Things were bad as you can see, however, the return journey was a bigger nightmare. We got to Accra airport and asked for the Afriqiyah desk. Nobody was there which is not surprising as it turns out that they had no flights that day because that day was not part of their schedule. Nevertheless we had tickets dated for that day. Nobody could be contacted. In other words, tickets had been issued for a flight which simply did not exist. In desperation we bought ourselves standby tickets on another airline and flew home. We had confirmed the return journey in an e-mail to the company though, like all of our messages, this did not receive a reply. In the course of these events, we met a number of other passengers who had been badly treated in this and similar ways. So our advice is to think carefully before travelling by Afriqiyah - it might cost you a lot.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Karen Willis
15 October 2005

Flew Afriqiyah to/from Tripoli with some trepidation. It wasn't fantastic, but it was fun and quite refreshing to get away from rigid flight crew routines. Check-in very efficient. Plane was a bit scruffy (especially outbound) - food was excellent and staff made sure everyone had plenty of water, soft drinks and tea/coffee. No entertainment, but the flight only 3 hours and there was a party atmosphere on board - especially amongst passengers to Ghana. I probably wouldn't recommend the experience for novice travellers, but if you can accept that Western standards don't apply all over the planet, it's absolutely fine.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Lorna Irving
25 August 2005

The planes are old, they are dirty, my tray table was broken for both flights, staff can be rude. I was asked what I wanted to drink, and requested sprite and was told they only had water. Afriqiyah Airways are concerned with one thing: making money. If this is to the detriment of the passengers then so be it. I was told that they used to be better, but have recently started removing baggage during transfer, or even not loading baggage at all from departure. Staff at Accra airport (Ghana) were all too familiar with the delayed baggage situation. My experience of lost luggage was certainly not unusual. I was told by another passenger that they had taken two weeks to get their baggage back. They offer no compensation either. I wrote to customer services and they said they hoped I got my baggage soon, but offered no financial assistance for inconvience. This airline needs to be publicly criticised. My worry during the flight was that an airline that takes no consideration of cleanliness, duty of care to customers, or timekeeping, will also pay less attention to safety.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Penny Alexander
20 August 2005

I am one of the group of volunteers that was mentioned above by Graham Prosser. It was a disaster right from the start of our journey and just went from bad to worse. We weren`t even sure we were all going to get on the flight together and standing in a queue with a lot of frustrated people for what seemed like hours didn`t start our journey of to a good way. The cabin staff on the first plane to tripoli seemed very miserable but the second flight they seemed a lot happier and ready to answer our questions to why we were made to sit in an airplane for 2hrs in unbearable temperatures. (I am surprised no one passed out) Only half of the air- conditioning was working when we did manage to get up in the air. So for some it was a very long, hot and tiring journey. To top it off we just couldn`t believe that our bags hadn`t arrived. I believe only about 4 of our bags arrived even though they all went at the same time. We arrived tues and finally got them sat evening. That`s 5days without our insect reppellent, sunblock, malaria tablets not to mention any clothing items and we wern`t in a place that you could just pop to the shop and get these important items. Back to the flight I was also very annoyed with the entertainment they eventually put on at the end of the flight. Half of the tv`s didn`t fold down so you were straining to look at the far tv`s my neck was killing me I had to give up watching it. Also there was no sound and they didn`t even offer any earphones. The seats were tatty and there wasn`t much room for your legs. Overall the price that we payed for these tickets was an insult to us. We could of gone to Australia which is triple the time to get there for a cheaper flight. What`s more annoying is that no-one will ever get a apology for the dreadful experience that we all suffered at the hands of Afriqiyah. The airline that we had initialy put our trust in.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Graham Prosser

19 August 2005

I recently took a group of volunteers to Ghana for three weeks using Afriqiyah. This is not something which I will ever do again! The booking arrangements were a farce, the queue at Gatwick must have been over 100mtrs long with people having tickets that had been provided by travel agents but not confirmed with the airline. Some passengers had been coming back for a week to get on to a flight. The tickets specified a baggage allowance of 60Kg, very nice you might think, until you do some simple maths and consider the lifting capacity of the airbus that was used (more on this later). The flight to Tripoli left over an hour late which wasn't surprising considering the chaos at the booking desk. We arrived a little late at Tripoli but that was OK as we had several hours to wait for our flight on to Accra. The plane was fine with reasonably spacious seats, the food just about acceptable considering the price of the flight so we felt reasonably happy. Immigration at Tripoli was OK if a little slow and the staff in the restaurant / waiting area very pleasant. No complaints there. Around half an hour later than scheduled we were loaded onto the flight for Accra. This turned out to be a tatty charter plane from Luxor Airways, poor leg room, very worn and uncomfortable seats and air conditioning that didn't seem to work. Somehow the booking system had gone awry again! We had four more passengers than seats! After two hours of sitting around in the heat an airline official eventually managed to persuade some passengers to take their offer of a luxury hotel and spending money so that the plane would have the correct ratio of passengers to seats i.e. one each. We eventually arrived in Accra about 1.5 hours late! Then the reality of the simple maths from earlier came into play! Only half our baggage had arrived, the plane would have been too heavy to fly with all of the baggage loaded. I understand that it hadn't even left Gatwick. My group then had to make an unscheduled stop to shop for underclothes, shirts, etc which were in our baggage. We also had a journey of around 200km to our destination where we were due to stay for three weeks so we were late leaving Accra and arriving at our destination, a small village with virtually zero communications. Four days later our luggage arrived in our village, I will not attempt to tell you of the horrors of trying to get our baggage back from the airline without having to travel to Accra, a four hour journey each way! We were lucky because we had good people in Accra who were able to wrestle the baggage away from the airline with letters of authorisation from each of us, eventually. The flight back was better, we had a relatively new Airbus for each leg of the journey so seats were okay, Immigration in Tripoli was extremely slow, taking about an hour to process the passengers from one small airbus. The toilets had no paper and there was no chance of getting any! Again the staff were friendly but unfortunately, friendliness does not make up for poor service and inefficiency. One positive note, the security in Tripoli was good, the staff friendly and efficient and knew their jobs. Other than that, a resounding vote of no confidence in this airline.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Olufunke Idowu

19 August 2005

The planes were in bad shape with no entertainment of any sort what- so- ever!. We were left standing for 2hrs 6mins at Tripoli before we were allowed to board, to the extent that insults were thrown to the officers likewise them to passengers! The food was below my expectations, nevertheless filling. The trip to and fro from Gatwick were delayed up to 2 hours. The hostess were quite polite and that covered for the numerous short comings. The airline is a disgrace and must not be used for international route.

Afriqiyah Airways review by F Mokaba

19 July 2005

Benin via tripoli with my family. The flight was not bad, but the aircraft is very old and needs to be changed. The seats were dirty and old. There was no entertainment on the flight - like most other airlines on international route.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Dominique Nadelhofer

7 June 2005

I flew Afriqiyah from Geneva to Ouagadougou, via Tripoli and Bamako (and back). Overall not a convincing experience. They have four planes in total, chartered from Tunisian charter company Nouvelair. I had the honour to "try" two of them. The first plane was in a really bad shape, the second was better. Property was so so. Cabin staff is from Nouvelair too. They don't care so much about the passengers. Transit in Tripoli was funny (especially the propaganda by Al Khadafi, eg. "Alcohol is a Weapon of Mass Destruction!"), but people are rude, the shopping offer is limited and transit organisation by Afriqiyah inexistent. Next time I would take Air France (finally not so much more expensive, and you can earn miles) or maybe try Royal Air Maroc.

Afriqiyah Airways review by Krishin Advani

15 January 2005

I took the plunge and booked this airline from London/Gatwick to Cotonou in Benin. The booking of the ticket went without trouble and almost two days later of booking it, I got my ticket. On the day (18/12/04), the checkin desk had 2 agents who were smiling and were very nice. The queue was long but it was moving. Boarding the aircraft was fast as the service to Tripoli was empty, only about 40 people travelled on this day. As an experienced traveller, I was willing to allow the service being negative on this service due to it being a young airline, but the drink (coca) and food (tender beef) was cooked very well and I was quite pleased. Although there was no entertainment, the fact that this was a day flight and it wasn't full enabled me to have a good nap to pass on the 3hrs to Tripoli. The flight left close to 20mins late but arrived within 15mins after schedule - not too much to worry about. On the other hand, the service between Tripoli and Cotonou was quite tiring and it was a packed aircraft going via Niamey. Food was chicken and vegetables but was not very well made. Aircraft interior on the inter-African route was clean (seats were torn) but nonetheless acceptable. Aircraft left and arrived 45mins late between TIP and COO. The price I paid was within 550 pounds and this I declare as acceptable for this kind if route. I would fly this airline again if I had the chance.