The first passengers among almost 500 stranded for 24 hours after Air Senegal ceased all operations amid an ownership dispute began being ferried Saturday to their destinations. Stemming from financial difficulties, the row between Dakar and the company's majority stakeholder Royal Air Maroc left just under 500 people trapped Friday in the Senegalese capital, Paris and other locations.

The Moroccan carrier and the Senegalese army each helped transport around 100 French tourists stuck in a southern seaside resort to Dakar on Saturday, according to a source. A source at the Senegalese transport ministry -- Dakar owns 49 percent to RAM's 51 percent stake -- told AFP that the Senegalese government would do everything in its power to resolve the stand-off and reassure the remaining stranded passengers.

In Dakar, 274 people were due Friday to fly to Paris and several west African locations, while in the French capital and elsewhere, some 224 people were expecting to fly to Dakar, according to figures given by a company official. "All these passengers are stranded at the airports where they were. We don't have the means to transport them. Our accounts have been frozen and other carriers are demanding to be paid in cash to fly them," the source in the Air Senegal commercial branch told AFP.

Royal Air Maroc announced Friday that Air Senegal had cancelled all of its flights. Air Senegal International (ASI) was created in 2000. For almost two years, RAM and Dakar have been at odds with each other. The row intensified earlier this month when a Senegalese court ruling banned RAM from withdrawing from the Senegalese carrier. RAM is appealing the decision.