Gabon's NRT Nationale Régionale Transport (NRT Gabon) appears to be making a comeback, having recertified with the Gabonese civil aviation authority (Agence Nationale de l'Aviation Civile - ANAC). The authority announced that the airline had re-secured an air operator's certificate (AOC) on March 28, allowing it to resume commercial air services within the country and internationally.
NRT Gabon's managing director Anicet Dissouva disclosed an "imminent expansion" of the company's fleet. He said the airline aims to strengthen connectivity between the country's cities and increase the aviation sector's competitiveness, according to a statement from ANAC.
Founded as National Airways Gabon (2001) (Libreville Leon M'Ba) (2001-2009) by Mokhtar Mouketou Nehme, the company was rebranded as NRT Nationale Regionale Transport (2009) (2009-2018), before it was rebranded again to La Nationale in 2018.
However, its AOC and operating licence (OL) were revoked on November 28, 2018, following an ownership dispute. At the time it was operating two E120s on wet-lease from South Africa's Sahara African Aviation (Mbombela) on scheduled domestic flights.
According to the African aviation news site Newsaero, in March 2019 Gabon’s Ministry of Transport brokered an agreement to create two new entities - Nationale Régionale Transport (NRT) and Nationale Airways Gabon (NAG) - each required to independently apply for an AOC from ANAC.
On May 18, 2020, La Nationale/NAG recertified and planned to restart domestic operations towards the end of 2020. However, the nascent airline was affected when ANAC grounded several foreign-registered aircraft citing their Gabonese operators' failure to transfer them to the local registry by the end of July 2020. It ultimately never took flight amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
