Burkina Faso firms up C295 order

The Ministry of Defence of Burkina Faso has placed a firm order for a single Airbus C295 medium-lift tactical transport.

The order comes under the African nation’s 2018-2022 Military Acquisition Law and will be operated by the Burkina Faso Air Force (BFAF), boosting its transport capabilities. 

Bernhard Brenner, head of Marketing and Sales for Airbus Defence and Space, said: “We are very proud to see that with Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Ivory Coast and now Burkina Faso, the C295 is becoming the 21st century’s standard tactical airlifter in Africa, with 36 aircraft operating in the region.”

It is expected that Airbus will be delivering the C295W variant to Burkina Faso, with its enhanced performance through the addition of winglets and uprated Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127G turboprop engines, which will be better suited to the climatic conditions of Burkina Faso. According to Airbus, the addition of winglets makes the C295W more "capable of transporting more payload over larger distances in the hot and high conditions, resulting in fuel consumption savings of around 4% and increased safety margins in mountainous regions”.