►► ETHIOPIA: Ethiopian Airlines maintains Brussels, Paris from December; drops Munich plans.

[UPDATE 27 AUGUST] Ethiopian Airlines (ET) will tentatively begin serving Stockholm via Munich, Germany daily effective December 1. Flights will operate using a Boeing 757. Also from December 1, Brussels will be dropped from the Ethiopian national carrier's network leaving Paris CDG to be operated direct.

► GERMANY: Royal Air Maroc resumes Casablanca - Munich from December.

Royal Air Maroc (AT) will, from 7 December, resume flights from Casablanca to Munich, Germany following a 7-year long interregnum. The thrice weekly flights will be operated by Denim Air Embraer E190 aircraft.

► MAURITIUS: Condor to start Munich - Mombasa, Mauritius from late 2013.

German charter carrier, Condor Flugdienst (DE), is to launch once weekly Munich - Mombasa and once weekly Munich - Mauritius flights in November and December respectively. Both destinations are currently served out of Frankfurt. 

► SEYCHELLES: Air Berlin, Air Seychelles sign codeshare deal.

airberlin(AB), Europe’s seventh largest airline, and Air Seychelles (HM), the national airline of the Seychelles, today signed a codeshare agreement which will see Air Seychelles’ HM code placed on four of airberlin’s daily return services between Abu Dhabi and Berlin, Düsseldorf complementing the island carrier’s existing 26 weekly codeshare connections with Etihad Airways (AY) to Frankfurt, Munich and Düsseldorf.

► ZIMBABWE: Air Zimbabwe to get two ERJ135s; to start Munich, London, Nairobi, Mauritius flights in March?

A new dossier on Air Zimbabwe (UM) entitled "Aircraft rotation for summer 2013" purportedly showing the carrier's service resumption plans for Summer 2013, has been published with Embraer Regional Jets set to join the fleet. Additionally, flights to the UK, Germany, Ghana, Mauritius, Kenya and Nigeria are planned.

► MOROCCO: Ryanair officially announces Fez, Marrakech as new bases; Essaouira, Rabat as new airports.

Confirming our previous speculative post, Ryanair (FR) has officially announced it would open two new bases in Morocco in 2013, at Fez (No 56) and Marrakech (No 57) with a total of three based-aircraft, as Ryanair invests over USD210 million in Morocco. 

► KENYA: Air Berlin to quit Mombasa from April 2013.

Germany's second largest airline, Air Berlin (AB) will, from 7 April, cease its twice weekly Airbus A330 flight from Munich, Germany to Mombasa, Kenya, adding yet another airline to the growing list of carriers pulling out of the Kenyan port city route, as the Eurozone crisis continues to hurt the pockets of Europeans, with African tourism experiencing a knock on effect.

Air Berlin: Munich, Germany - Mombasa, Kenya

• AB7362 MUC 2105 - 0615+1 MBA 332 | 37 (ENDS 7 APRIL 2012)

► GERMANY: Lufthansa announces Africa schedule changes for European Winter.

German carrier Lufthansa (LH) has announced various operational and frequency changes to its Africa network for the duration of the European winter of 2012/2013.

Lufthansa's Africa Network

● Lufthansa Winter Africa Timetable ●

• Frankfurt – Johannesburg, South Africa: 08 January 2013 – 30 January 2013 - Service reduces from daily to 6x weekly.
• Frankfurt – Khartoum, Sudan – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Service to operate 6x weekly instead of planned daily.
• Frankfurt – Lagos, Nigeria – Port Harcourt, Nigeria: 16 January 2013 – 06 February 2013 Service reduces from daily to 6x weekly.

Previously reported:

• Munich – Cape Town, South Africa: Effective 28 October 2012 - Service to switch from Frankfurt to Munich due to Frankfurt Noise Abatement rules.  

Read More Here [Airline Route]

► SOUTH AFRICA: Lufthansa drops Frankfurt for Munich to Cape Town following curfew ruling.

Following on from April's landmark ruling by a federal court in Leipzig, Germany to ban flights at Frankfurt between 11pm and 5am in response to complaints about the noise from residents, so German carrier Lufthansa (LH) has been forced to switch its Cape Town, South Africa service from Frankfurt to Munich effective 28 October 2012.

Lufthansa Boeing 747 at Cape Town (Jacobus Saayman)

Lufthansa: Munich, Germany - Cape Town, South Africa
Effective 28 October 2012

• LH574 MUC2200 – 1035+1CPT 343 x13
• LH575 CPT1900 – 0535+1MUC 343 x24

Read More Here [Airline Route]

As if the restrictions and its economic consequences at Frankfurt were not enough, Lufthansa has threatened to move some of its traffic to either Brussels, Zurich or Vienna after a referendum in Munich on the 20 June put plans to build a third runway at Munich Airport into jeopardy.

► MAURITIUS: Air Mauritius increases seats despite rumours of serious trouble ahead.

Following in the footsteps of Air Seychelles who dropped London, Paris, Milan and Rome before entering into a strategic alliance with Etihad Airways, Air Mauritius has axed 7 International destinations with effect from May 2012 (From 31st May 12: Milan, Sydney, Melbourne and Frankfurt, Munich, Geneva and Durban.from 31 October 2012), whilst increasing seating capacity on its remaining flights by 3% to 1,943,946 seats from 01 April 2012 to 31 March 2013, in an attempt to consolidate its market base.

In a statement on its Facebook, Air Mauritius stated:

The following destinations have been retained: Paris, London, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Cape Town, St Denis, St Pierre, Antananarivo, Rodrigues, Perth, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

The following additional weekly flights have been added:
With effect from April 2012:

• Mumbai + 1 frequency to reach 4 frequencies

With effect from beginning of June 2012:

• Perth + 1 frequency to reach 2 frequencies

With effect from end of October 2012:

• Nairobi + 1 frequency to reach 3 frequencies
• Johannesburg + up to 7 frequencies to reach up to 14 frequencies
• Cape Town + 1 frequency to reach 3 frequencies Antananarivo + 2 frequencies to reach 6 frequencies
• Kuala Lumpur 3 nonstop frequencies

However, rumours still abound that the Mauritian carrier, Air Mauritius (MK), is in for rough next few months. Recently, the Mauritius Ministry of Tourism signed a major strategic partnership with Emirates to bring traffic via Dubai on its 11x-weekly services to the island in a move that will put even greater pressure on the airline. This comes at a time when even the larger European carriers have cut frequencies to Port Louis, given the economic slowdown seen in Europe.

Sources claim that recently the airline sold its headquarters building, its hotel interests as well as its helicopter division in order to remain buoyant for the short term, though for how much longer is uncertain.

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