Africa One was a privately owned pan-African airline that was financed by Boeing Capital Corporation. It was initially based in Entebbe, Uganda, with aircraft wet leased from Africa One Services, registered in Ireland. Africa One Congo, although having a very similar name, was not related to the company and the company was not the operator of the An-26 that crashed in the DRC in 2007. Africa One operated in years 2002–2009. History AfricaOne was the brainchild of Zimbabwe born Charles Heather whereby countries within the continent of Africa would pool their air transport markets sharing the risk and rewards between shareholders from different regions and providing innovative benefits for all stakeholders. The airline ceased operations after crucial flight rights were withdrawn, which was seen by some commentators at the time as a result of dirty tricks campaign undertaken by certain shareholders. The aircraft were provided by Ireland registered AfricaOne Services to the airline on an ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) basis. UK based businessman and DAS Air Cargo Executive Director Charles Heather held the role of AfricaOne Services while DAS Air Cargo chairman Capt Joe Roy became chairman of AfricaOne Holdings. Both were shareholders in the holding company. Chief Financial Officer, David Fisher speaking out regarding the concept of Irish Services company of AfricaOne said: "The AfricaOne concept is a great concept where you have a service company providing aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance to all the African operators very cost effectively. In order for it to succeed it needs all the African shareholders to be fully committed to the commercial, operational and equity plans of the airline. Destinations Africa One initially was announced 29 April 2002 using DC-9s to serve Entebbe, Lagos, Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Banjul Gambia with bi-weekly service from those cities to London Gatwick and Dubai by DC-10. Fleet Africa One used A320, DC-10 and DC-9 on their operations Further reading Airline launch 2004-07-08 archived Boeing announcement 2002-05-06 archived 50 top companies (as of 2002-08-05) BBC News re launch press release on launch 28/5 Nove africke aerolinie AfricaOne zahajily provoz lety do Gatwicku z Nigerie a Ugandy (in Czech) References Defunct airlines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Airlines established in 2002 2002 establishments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Airlines disestablished in 2009 2009 disestablishments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo