Air France (AF) will, from October 27, 2013, commence once weekly dedicated flights from Paris CDG to Djibouti Ambouli onboard an Airbus A340-300. As such, the current 3x weekly service to the Horn of Africa state which operates via Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will cease with effect from that date with flights to Riyadh increasing to 5x weekly.
[UPDATE 06 AUGUST] Rwandan national carrier, Rwandair (WB), will from 01JUL13 begin operations to South Sudan, with a 3x weekly Kigali – Juba service, on board CRJ900 aircraft.
Lagos-based aviation business Evergreen Apple Nigeria (EAN) has appointed Joe McDermott to the
newly created role of Head of Fixed-base operator (FBO) Operations. He will be based at the
Lagos headquarters and be responsible for managing all operations at its
fully integrated FBO facility based at Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos,
along with developing existing offices in Port Harcourt and Abuja that
currently manage EAN passenger requests in each location.
Egypt's new Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr Abdel Aziz Fadel, says Cairo International Airport's Aerotropolis proposal, dubbed Cairo AeroCity, has thus far attracted USD3billion in initial bids in spite of the unstable political situation currently prevailing in the country.
Sierra Leone’s Transport and Aviation Minister, Mr. Leonard Balogun Koroma, says his country has submitted all the necessary documents and information to Delta Airlines (DL) in the hopes of luring the US carrier to the capital Freetown. Delta's West African network currently consists of Dakar, Monrovia, Lagos and Accra.
Qatar Airways (QR) has once again been victimized in Libya, this time in Tripoli when on Sunday, August 4, an armed militia are said to have forced Tripoli ATC tower staff to deny an inbound Qatar Airways A320 permission to land, instead forcing it to divert to Alexandria, Egypt. The flight, QR528, then refuelled and returned to Qatar.
The Zanzibari House of Representatives has taken the government there to task over continuous delays and cost overruns in the construction of an urgently needed new international terminal (Terminal II) at Zanzibar's Abeid Amani Karume International Airport.
British Airways (BA) has announced that from October 25, it will cease its 3x weekly flights from London Gatwick to Tunis, Tunisia citing a lack of profitability on the route. Currently, both the B737-400 and the A319 are used to service the route.
The Republic of Congo's third international airport, situated in Djambala, 400km north of Brazzaville, has seen its runway inaugurated following the arrival of a Trans Air Congo (Q8) B737-300 carrying a delegation of government suits and bureaucrats late last week. The project was launched in 2001.
The board of directors and management of Aero Surveys Limited, operators of Ghana's Starbow Airlines (S9), have announced the appointment of Mr Sukhjinder Mann to the position of Chief Financial Officer. Mr Mann arrived at the airline 7 months ago as the Financial Controller and has been the acting CFO for over 3 months.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released its June passenger demand figures showing year-on-year global growth of 6.0%. Africa saw a growth of 11.2% with African airlines benefiting from strong domestic economic growth in key markets such as Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. While global air freight demand figures showed a 1.2% year-on-year expansion, Africa's figures showed growth in June of 2.4% on June 2012.
Ethiopia and Australia have reportedly signed a Bilateral Air Services Agreement in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Present at the signing ceremony last week was the Director 
General of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA), Colonel Wesenyeleh
Hunegnaw, and the Australian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Ms Lisa Filipetto.
The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) on Friday, August 2, reportedly grounded eleven of British Airways-Comair's aircraft after they were found to be flying with components whose life-cycle expired in August 2012.
Air Tanzania (TC) is reportedly to acquire five Xian MA60s and three Harbin Y-12 turboprops (whether they are on lease or outright purchase is unclear) from JoyAir (JR), a Chinese carrier that is 95% owned by China's state-backed aircraft manufacturer and Xian's parent, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), with the remaining 5% held by China Eastern Airlines (MU).
Kenya Airways (KQ) has released its
Operations Report for the First Quarter of its 2013/14 Financial Year. Overall, the company put into the market place a total capacity of 3'464million seat kilometres which gives a year on year growth of 3.0%. During this quarter the airline successfully launched three weekly operations into Livingstone, the third destination in Zambia after Lusaka and Ndola.
In line with an announcement made in mid-March during the commissioning of the newly renovated and expanded international terminal at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Turkish Airlines (TK) are set to begin 4x weekly flights from Istanbul to Ndjamena, Chad via Kano, Nigeria with effect from December 12. Flights will operate using a Boeing 737-800.
South Africa's Gryphon Airlines (6P) will start scheduled flights from South Africa through to Benin via Congo and Gabon with effect from November 1. The airline will operate a former 1Time (T6) McDonnell Douglas MD83 (MSN 49829 | ZS-TRJ) on the route.
Kinshasa-based Air Kasaï has added a B737-200Adv (MSN 22123 | ZS-EVE) to its fleet on lease from South Africa's Gryphon Airlines. Air Kasai also operates the Congo's sole ATR72-200 and various smaller Antonovs.