■ ZIMBABWE: Edmund Makona appointed Air Zimbabwe interim CEO as forensic audit now fingers upper management.

Air Zimbabwe (UM) has appointed its head of Quality, Safety & Security, Mr. Edmund Makona, as its acting Chief Executive Officer following the recent suspension of incumbent Mr Innocent Mavhunga and acting Managing Director, Ms Grace Pfumbidzayi. The two were suspended to allow for further investigations after a recent forensic audit of the airline's operations uncovered alleged financial discrepancies in its insurance premium payments for the period 2009 - present.

■ SOMALIA: Somaliland lifts UN flights ban after Turkish brokered talks resolve impasse with Mogadishu.

Turkey has successfully brokered an agreement following talks between the autonomous, yet internationally unrecognised, state of Somaliland and Somalia in which United Nations aircraft will once more be allowed to resume transiting Somaliland airspace and airports, effective July 15. Mr Mahmoud Abdi Hashi, Somaliland's Minister of Civil Aviation and Air Transport, made the announcement in Hargeisa.

■ EGYPT: Egyptair M&E boss, Abdel Aziz Fadel, appointed new Minister of Civil Aviation.

Egypt's new interim president, Adly Mansour, on Tuesday July 16, presided over the swearing-in ceremony of his new cabinet, scheduled to last six months while fresh elections are planned, whereupon he appointed Mr Abdel Aziz Fadel, the current Chairman and CEO of  Egyptair Maintenance & Engineering, to the post of interim Minister of Civil Aviation. Mr Fadel replaces Engineer Wael El-Maadawy who was ousted along with the rest of Mohammad Morsi's government during last week's military-backed coup d'état.

■ NIGERIA: Princess Stella officially unveils Nigeria's revised National Civil Aviation Policy.

The Nigerian Minister of Civil Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, has officially unveiled her country's revised dossier on aviation dubbed "the Revised National Civil Aviation Policy 2013" (NCAP) needed, for what it terms, to bring new and sustainable regulatory structures into the industry for the safety and security of airline passengers and crew.

■ NIGERIA: Ghana's Minister of Transport decries Nigeria's double-talk regarding the granting of traffic rights.

Ghana's Minister of Transport, Dzifa Attivor, has bemoaned Nigeria's inaction in granting Ghanaian airlines rights to operate into Nigerian airports, despite the fact that Nigeria is a signatory to the Yamoussoukro Agreement which concerns the liberalisation of access to air transport markets in Africa (the Yamoussoukro Decision) and which entered into force on 12 August 2000. The Yamoussoukro Decision takes precedence over any multilateral or bilateral agreements on air services between States Parties which are incompatible with the Decision.

► EGYPT: Air Memphis forced to suspend Tehran flights after just 1 week following sectarian protests.

Just one week after having launched Egypt and Iran's first direct air link in over 30 years,  Air Memphis (MHS), the Egyptian charter operator, has been forced to suspend the flights after protests broke out at the Iranian ambassador's residence in Cairo just prior to Saturday's inaugural flight.

■ SOUTH AFRICA: SAA officially hands over Turnaround Plan #9 to Government for approval.

South African Airways (SA) has submitted its Long-term Turnaround Strategy, its 9th in 13 years, to the Public Enterprises Minister, Malusi Gigaba. The handover was made yesterday to the Minister by Ms. Dudu Myeni, the acting Chairperson of the SAA Board of Directors on behalf of the airline and comes as one of the preset conditions the airline had to ascent to when it received its USD600million bail out from Pretoria.

■ SOUTH AFRICA: Former 1Time founders place blame for airline's demise on BEE investors' shoulders.

The former founders of defunct South African LCC, 1Time (T6), have placed the blame for the carrier's demise squarely on the shoulders of the Black Economic Empowerment consortium who acquired a 25% shareholding in the airline.

■ SOUTH AFRICA: Murky business meetings and an unapproved USD1billion Airbus fleet renewal deal at centre of SAA's boardroom woes claims report.

Murky private business meetings and a USD1.08billion (ZAR10billion) fleet procurement tender awarded to Airbus Industrie SAS are at the heart of South African Airways (SA)'s boardroom troubles claims an article by the amaBhungane investigative column of The Mail & Guardian newspaper.

■ BURUNDI: Evrard Giswaswa, CEO of Air Burundi, arrested for alleged fraudulent activity.

The former Mayor of Bujumbura and current CEO of Air Burundi (8Y), Mr. Evrard Giswaswa, was on Monday 11 March arrested on charges of aiding and abetting fraudulent management and for interfering in investigations of a fire that broke out at Bujumbura's central market in late January. Since then, he has been imprisoned at Mpimba Prison in the Burundian capital awaiting trial.

■ SOUTH AFRICA: Bezuidenhout tipped to become new SAA boss.

Sections of the South African travel media have speculated that incumbent South African Airways (SA) CEO Nico Bezuidenhout, who is also the CEO of SAA's LCC wing, Mango, is likely to be confirmed as the carrier's de facto boss.

■ LIBERIA: Government clarifies awarding of contract for new $11mln hotel at Roberts International Airport.

The Liberian Government says it has indeed awarded an USD11million contract for the construction of a 5-star hotel at Monrovia's Roberts International Airport to local tycoon, Mr. George Abi-Jaoudi, a Lebanese businessman. Liberian Minister of Transport,  Eugene Lenn Nagbe, made the statement following much speculation in the Liberian press over the nature of the award given Mr Abi-Jaoudi's relationship to the Liberian First Family.

■ NAMIBIA: Tourism sector jittery as Government, Air Namibia remain mute on the latter's new business plan.

Contrary to the old adage that "No news is good news", the silence emanating from Windhoek regarding Air Namibia's (SW) new business plan, pitched to its sole shareholder, the Namibian Government, late last week, is starting to unsettle players in Namibia's tourism industry, already hit by the Eurozone crisis.

■ SOUTH AFRICA: SAA board suspends Acting CEO Vuyisile Kona; Mango's Bezuidenhout now in power.

South African Airways (SA) has flown into yet more board room trouble as reports emerge that it has now placed its acting CEO, Vuyisile Kona, on precautionary suspension, effective immediately.

■ NIGERIA: NAAPE endorses Senate's report recommending Demuren's sacking and Dana Air's AOC revocation.

Nigeria's National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) has come out in support of Nigerian Senate & House of Representatives whose recent Joint Committee on Aviation Report unequivocally condemned the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) as being staffed by "unqualified persons working as Aircraft Inspectors" and which recommended the immediate withdrawal of Dana Air's (9J) Air Operators Certificate, reinstated in early December.

► TUNISIA: Tunisair boss Jrad whinges about Syphax's network expansion plans calling them "unfair."

Rabah Jrad, the boss of Tunisia's national carrier, Tunisair (TU), in an interview with a local Tunisian radio station has labelled as "illegal" and "unfair" the networkexpansion plans of private Tunisian private carrier, Syphax Airlines (FS).

■ BURUNDI: Lack of political, legal will sabotaging the privatization of Air Burundi, Civil aviation authority.

Bureaucratic infighting and legal nit picking are amongst the causes of the Burundian government's ongoing battles to reorganize and in some cases, privatize, its ailing civil aviation industry.

● IATA: African governments shooting themselves, and each other, in the foot: Tyler

Whilst Africa is becoming an international point of focus, African airlines themselves, are only expected to breakeven in 2013 - unchanged from the previous year's forecast and from 2011, says the International Air Transport Association's boss Tony Tyler in his industry financial outlook for the rest of 2012 and 2013. 

■ SOUTH AFRICA: Gigaba appoints Duduzile Myeni to Acting Chairwoman, Vuyusile Kona to Acting CEO of SAA.

South African Minister of Public Enterprises, Malusi Gigaba, has appointed with immediate effect, Vuyisile Kona to the position of Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Duduzile Myeni as the Acting Chairwoman of the Board of South African Airways following a recent SAA Board meeting held on 7 December 2012.

■ SOUTH AFRICA: SAA gets its USD600million bailout from Government.

The South African Government today announced that it would guarantee USD$600 million in loans for troubled state airline South African Airways (SA) over the next two years. The news comes as dust from  last week's mass boardroom resignation settles, with 8 new board-members having been appointed, in addition to a new chairman.