• The African Aviation Tribune •

Sunday, April 7, 2013

► RWANDA: Rwandair outlines new Accra via Lagos and Douala via Brazzaville, Libreville ops.

Rwandan national carrier, RwandAir (WB) has outlined its planned Kigali - Accra and Kigali - Brazzaville - Libreville - Douala services due to launch in June. According to Amadeus, Accra flights will operate 3x weekly via Lagos, Nigeria with Rwandair obtaining 5th Freedom rights between Lagos and Accra. Douala flights will operate 4x weekly.

[UPDATE 7 APRIL] Air Botswana (BP) is to drop its 4x weekly Cape Town - Maun route effective 31 March, just 10 months after its début. The route originally launched with daily flights back in June 2012 and predominantly catered for the leisure market.

Kumasi Airport in Ghana has been closed once more owing to its runway 20 cracking and subsiding. This follows after the airport was closed year in December to allow for repairs to the same runway.

Both LAM - Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (TM), and Air Namibia (SW) have announced changes to their Maputo - Beira - Harare and Windhoek - Harare routes effective 31 March. LAM has now added an extra 3rd weekly service to the

Zimbabwean capital, while Air Namibia operations will now route its Harare flights onwards to Lusaka, Zambia also effective 31 March. Days 1 and 5 will route Windhoek - Lusaka - Harare - Windhoek while Days 3 and 7 will route Windhoek - Harare - Lusaka - Windhoek.

[UPDATE 7 APRIL] Air Namibia (SW) is, according to Amadeus, to axe its Windhoek - Accra (Ghana) flights effective 10 April. In addition, Windhoek to Cape Town, and Windhoek to Johannesburg flights are to be reduced from 3 to 2 a day, with Windhoek to Frankfurt flights being reduced to 4x a week effective immediately.

The Tanzanian Airport Authority (TAA) has allocated more than USD12'000 (TZS20million) for the evaluation of an area at Kisumba Village for the construction of a "modern, spacious airport" to serve Sumbawanga Municipality in Rukwa District, south western Tanzania.

Tope Fagbemi, the controversial Director of Human Resources & Corporate Planning at Nigeria's second largest carrier, AeroContractors (AJ), was on Friday, removed from her position, likely as a concession granted to striking workers whose 3 week long strike ended this past week.

The Director-General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Air-Commodore Kwame Mamphey has been elected to the Chairmanship of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) during the organ's recently ended 23rd Plenary session held in Accra.

► ANGOLA: LAM Mozambique boosts frequencies between Luanda and Maputo.

LAM - Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (TM), Mozambique's national carrier has announced an increase in its frequencies to the Angolan capital Luanda, effective 31 March, with the addition of a third weekly flight on Wednesday.

As a continuation to its already announced tie up with Etihad (EY), Kenya Airways (KQ) is expanding its codeshare operations with the Gulf carrier, which will now see

Etihad's “EY” code appearing on Kenya Airways’ selected service to Gaborone, Botswana as well as various East African cities. In return, Kenya’s “KQ” code is now appearing on selected ETIHAD’s Middle East Service.

Tunisian national carrier, Tunisair (TU), is to launch direct 2x weekly seasonal flights between the Mediterranean coastal city of Monastir and St Petersburg, Russia from 26 April onwards. Flights will operate with an Airbus A320.

In continuation of our previous post regarding TAAG Angolan Airlines (DT)'s new Northern Summer 2013 schedule, the Angolan flag carrier has announced variations to its domestic timetable effective 31 March.

According to the airline’s latest schedule listing, Turkish Airlines Cargo’s Summer 2013 planned operation as follow. The airline did not specify operational aircraft in its schedule listing.

AeroContractor's (AJ) management, on the back of strong government pressure, has directed its recently dismissed staff numbering 600+ to reapply for assessment and possible reemployment. The airline recently resumed partial operations following a 20 day long strike.

The Louis Berger Group Inc., the program manager of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport's (SSRIA) airport expansion project on behalf of Airport Terminal Operations Ltd., a company formed by Airports of Mauritius Limited (AML) and Aéroports de Paris Management, recently celebrated the first commercial test flight - an Air Mauritius flight (MK) - from the New Terminal Building at the airport.

Botswana and Namibia have signed agreement letters on civil aviation Search And Rescue (SAR) that will coordinate services in the country to meet domestic needs and international standards. The agreement will also ensure support during accidents as well as an overall plan for the coordination of civil search and rescue operations in the event of an air disaster.

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.

► FLEET UPDATE BULLETIN: Vulkan Air (South Africa), Air Namibia (SW), Fly540 Angola, Atlas Aviation Kenya.

The following is a fleet update bulletin for aircraft that are in use, have been in use or will be in use for these listed airlines: Vulkan Air (South Africa), Air Namibia (SW), Fly540 Angola, Atlas Aviation Kenya.

► UGANDA: Air Uganda announces changes to Juba, Dar es Salaam ops effective 1 May.

In continuation to our previous post, Air Uganda (U7) has updated its schedule with changes to Entebbe - Dar es Salaam, Entebbe - Juba (South Sudan) routes coming into effect from 01MAY.

AirlineRoute writes that as per the 03APR13 GDS timetable and inventory display, Kenya Airways( is to introduce Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to its operation starting November 2013, initially on flights to Amsterdam and London Heathrow. Planned Boeing 777-300ER service as follow.

[UPDATE 03 APRIL 2013] Following on from our previous post on the topic, Air Botswana (BP) have announced their new updated timetable with new destinations including Johannesburg (Lanseria), Cape Town, Nairobi (Kenya), Lilongwe, Blantyre (Malawi) and Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) as new destinations from the Batswana carrier's hub, Gaborone. Lusaka, Zambia will also see a third extra Wednesday frequency served in tandem to Lilongwe, Malawi which will receive a twice weekly service (one direct and the other via Lusaka.)

Royal Air Maroc (AT) is planning to boost both cargo and passenger services out of Laâyoune, the capital of Western Sahara (also known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) with the recent launch of flights to Gran Canaria and Royal Air Maroc Cargo flights from Dakar to Casablanca via Laâyoune set to begin in June 2013.

Air Mauritius (MK) is looking to return to Durban, South Africa after having dropped the route in late October 2012 citing poor loads. In addition, the carrier will also offer "convenient connections to the Far East" as it seeks to exploit the growing Africa - Asia market.

Libyan Airlines (LN) is aiming to boost its passenger numbers by 11% in 2014, to 1.5million as the carrier seeks to secure a 50% market share of Libya's international traffic.

Kenya Airways (KQ) has acquired fifth freedom rights on the Dubai - Hong Kong sector of its new Nairobi - Hong Kong flights, set to begin 13JUN. The new flights will operate out of Nairobi 3x weekly.

Evergreen Apple Nigeria (EAN) has been selected by Avjet Routing, the Sharjah, United Arab Emirates-based aviation business services company, to serve as its preferred ground handler in Nigeria with principal services being provided at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

►► TANZANIA: Air Uganda planning for Entebbe - Kilimanjaro flights; launches "Crane Class" product.

[UPDATE 2 APRIL] Air Uganda (U7) has revealed that it is in the process of planning a new route from its hub in Entebbe to the Tanzanian tourist mecca of Kilimanjaro. Currently, the airline operates to the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam.

Ethiopian Airlines (ET), will, starting 16JUN13, add a 5th weekly service to its Addis Ababa – Muscat route while from 18JUN13 service to Brazzaville and Kinshasa will increase from 7 to 10 flights weekly. In addition, the existing daily Addis Ababa – Kinshasa – Brazzaville – Addis Ababa service will be adjusted.

Following the 2nd session of the Zambia-Mauritius Joint Permanent Commission of Cooperation held in the Mauritian capital, Port Louis, last week, Mauritius and Zambia have agreed to sign a Bilateral Air Services Agreement in the near future, aimed at promoting and enhancing trade between the two countries.

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.

► SOMALIA: African Express Airways timetable changes for Somalia, Kenya, Yemen, UAE traffic.

Nairobi-based African Express Airways (XU), has adopted numerous changes to its regional & Horn of Africa operations. Most notable are the dropping of Aden (Yemen) - Berbera (Somaliland) - Mogadishu flights, the suspension of Sharjah (UAE) - Berbera - Mogadishu - Wajir - Nairobi flights until June and the introduction of Nairobi - Mogadishu - Wajir flights from early April.

Air Namibia (SW), will from 31MAY, axe its 4x weekly Windhoek - Gaborone, Botswana flights. The rationalization comes after the carrier announced it would drop its Johannesburg - Windhoek - Accra, Ghana service from 10APR13.

Omani national carrier, Oman Air (WY), is planning to increase its services to Africa - with Casablanca first in line - as part of its plan to become profitable. The move comes after the airline posted a loss of USD253million (OMR97.47million) for 2012.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has confirmed the death of five people who died on the evening of Saturday 30 March, when their South African Air Force Agusta A109 Light Utility Helicopter crashed around 19h00L just north of Satara, Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga.

► ETHIOPIA: Abedair Aviation Ethiopia rebrands itself as Aquarius Aviation.

Addis Ababa-based Aberdair Aviation Ethiopia has been re-branded as Aquarius Aviation to distinguish itself from the Nairobi-based operator, Aberdair Aviation. On launching in 2009, Aquarius leased various aircraft from Aberdair Kenya, as well as paid it royalties for the use of its name in order to help establish a reputation for the ad-hoc charter airline.

Mega Global Air Services, also known as MegaMaldives Airlines (5M), is planning to start a once weekly Beijing - Mauritius service from 9 July writes Swiss aviation newswire, CH-Aviation.

Rwandan national carrier, Rwandair's (WB), first of two Boeing 737-700NGs (MSN: 30717 | 9XR-WJ) (ex D-AHXB) leased from the International Leasing Finance Corporation, has come out of the paint shop in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

► ZAMBIA: Mukuba Airlines, Zambia's first LCC, set to start ops in coming months with ATR42s, 72s.

Mukuba Airlines, dubbed Zambia's first Budget airline/LCC, is set to start operations in the next few months, in time for the XXth United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly to be jointly held in Livingstone & Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in August this year.

As previously reported, Nigeria's second largest airline, AeroContractors (AJ), will resume flights effective today, 29 March bringing to an end, a strike that had lasted 20 days. Dana Air (9J) however, remains grounded despite being given the go ahead by government to resume operations nearly 2 weeks ago.

With the imminent arrival of the first of two Boeing 737-700NGs, replacing the airline's Boeing 737-500s whose leases expire mid year, Rwandair (WB) has announced that Douala and Accra will be the airline's next new destinations from 1 June 2013.

[UPDATE 29 MARCH] Etihad Airways(EY), has signed a strategic commercial partnership agreement with Kenya Airways (KQ), which will see Etihad Airways placing its EY code on Kenya

Airways flights while Kenya Airways will place its KQ code on Etihad Airways’ daily service from Nairobi to Abu Dhabi and, subject to government approval, onto Etihad various other routes.

CH-Aviation reports that, as part of its Summer 2013 schedule, Camair-Co(QC), the Cameroonian national carrier, has announced it is to start flights between Douala and Abidjan effective 04JUN. Additionally, the carrier has been awarded 5th Freedom rights on the Brazzaville - Kinshasa sectors of of its Douala - Brazzaville - Kinshasa flights, along with Lagos - Cotonou on its Douala - Lagos - Cotonou flights.

● BOTSWANA: New Civil Aviation Act, Aviation Security Act now being actively enforced by government.

Two important Civil Aviation Laws have now come into force in Botswana - The Civil Aviation Act (2011) and the Aviation Security Act (2011). The laws were crafted following numerous deficiencies relating to the primary aviation law and other elements of Botswana’s safety oversight system and aviation security system, that were identified by the ICAO's Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) in 2006 and Universal Security Audit Programme (USAP) of 2008.

Ulendo Airlink (7Q), the trading name for Nyasa Express - the aviation division of Malawi’s Ulendo Travel Group - has outlined its High Season (01JUL13 - 31OCT13) and Low Season (15MAR13 - 30JUN13 & 01NOV13 - 15JAN14) domestic timetable.

Mogadishu's Aden Adde International Airport was temporarily closed today after a vehicle belonging to ground-handling services provider, SKA Logistics, was suspected of carrying explosives.

Gambia Bird (3G), the 90/10 venture between German carrier, Germania (ST) and the Gambian government, has announced that it will temporarily reduce its flight schedule in the coming weeks owing to damage sustained by one of its Airbus A319s.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Monday, April 1, 2013

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Friday, March 29, 2013

Thursday, March 28, 2013