# Africa Aviation thread



## SkylineTurbo

Emirates is considering flying to Kishasa.


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## hkskyline

*Direct Air Services: U.S.-Africa Summit Under Way *
Ndubuisi Francis 

Lagos, Feb 10, 2005 (This Day/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- A United States-Africa Air Transportation Summit is under way to stimulate growth on the African continent through direct air services. 

The summit which is a partnership to develop direct air services between the United States and African markets is billed for Miami, Florida, United States of America between May 16 and 18. 

Already, a team from the United States led by the President of The Foundation for Democracy in Africa/Coordinator, AGOA Civil Society Network Secretariat, Mr. Fred Oladeinde and Deputy Director, Miami Interna-tional Airport, Miguel Southwell are currently meeting with aviation stakeholders in some African countries, including Nigeria to sensitise them on the event. 

Organised by the Foundation for Democracy in Africa in collaboration with and hosted by Miami International Airport, the summit is aimed at fostering a partnership between air transport leaders in the United States and Africa to build direct air services between the two markets. 

The focus of the summit will be on aviation safety and security in pursuit of Category 1, emerging challenges for U.S/Africa bilateral agreements, the marketing of Africa-to-U.S direct air service and an analysis of aviation infrastructure project profiles to sustain growth in air service. 

Collaborating on the summit which would hold at the Sheraton Biscayne bay Hotel in Miami, Florida are the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), U.S. Transportation Security Administration, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the United States Trade and Development Agency. 

According to Oladeinde, the summit is aimed at assisting in formulating for African leaders, models to achieving Category 1 status; provide insight to assist government negotiators and airline stakeholders in Africa, Europe and the United States to succeed in air route agreements; provide airports in Africa the tools to market new air service to airlines and an opportunity to collaborate with U.S airports to build routes between them. 

The summit also seeks to provide a forum for suppliers, financiers and developers of aviation infrastructure to network as well as act as a catalyst to Africa's economic development through the development of a substantially greater number of direct flights between Africa and the U.S. 

The summit is open to aircraft financing and maintenance firms; aircraft manufacturers and leasing companies; African, U.S and European airline officials; airport officials in the U.S and Africa interested in air service development, aviation consultants as well as government air transport officials and regulators. 

Foundation for Democracy in Africa (FDA) is a Washington DC based private voluntary organisation registered with the U.S Agency for International Development and focuses on sustainable development, economic growth and plurality throughout Africa. 

It has been granted consultative status (special) as a non governmental organisation with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. 

The Miami International Airport is a leading international passenger and cargo gateway in the United States.


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## Nick in Atlanta

Could you guys summarize your articles on your post. I usually only look at the headline. Unless it's a really interesting article, it can usually be summarized with a few bullet lines.


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## SkylineTurbo

*Airline Launches Flights to South Sudan*

East African Safari Air Express (EASAX) has launched scheduled flights to the Southern Sudanese town of Rumbek.

A statement from the airline said the EASAX would initially operate two weekly flights.

The Fokker-27 aircraft will operate return flights to Rumbek every Monday and Friday from Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

A privately owned and run Kenyan commercial airline, EASAX also runs two daily flights to Kisumu and daily flights to Lokichoggio on the Kenya-Sudan border.

Two years ago, EASAX made history by becoming the first airline to operate scheduled flights to Lokichoggio, a key transit point to Southern Sudan.

The airline's management said it was looking forward to the upgrading of Rumbek airstrip to enable it deploy larger aircraft to the route.

The airstrip falls under the jurisdiction of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) and upgrading work is expected to begin in the next few months.

Managing Director Adam Ogden said EASAX had continued to grow despite the turbulence in the aviation industry and rocketing fuel prices.

"We are delighted to be spreading our wings to Southern Sudan and are proud to be the first scheduled airline to support peace in the region," he said.

Rumbek has been picked to become the provisional capital of Southern Sudan following the recent signing of a peace deal between the SPLM and the Khartoum government.


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## dysan1

DUBE TRADEPORT - DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA


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## hkskyline

*Unfriendly skies: African airspace leads world in aviation accidents*

NAIROBI, Feb 23 (AFP) - Africa accounts for just three percent of world aircraft departures but has earned the dubious distinction of leading the globe in aviation accidents, if not commercial flights, an industry group said Wednesday.

In 2003, the last year for which comprehensive statistics are available, African airspace accounted for 28 percent of fatal aviation accidents worldwide, the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) said.

However, the AFRAA report stressed that the vast majority of mishaps did not involve scheduled passenger flights and maintained that commercial air service, particularly on international routes, was safe.

Instead, it blamed much of the problem on the vagaries of unscheduled flights, poor maintenance, ageing charter airline fleets, untrained crews and the illegal movement of aircraft in war-torn countries.

"Accident rates on the African continent are currently unacceptably high," AFRAA Secretary General Christian Folly-Kossi told the opening of a two-day conference on African air safety here.

Between 1994 and 2003, Africa recorded 210 aviation accidents, AFRAA said.

Almost 60 percent of those took place in four nations, three of which: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Angola and Sudan, were in the throes of civil war during the period, it said.

AFRAA blamed the high number of accidents there on the use of illegally acquired and often old, unsafe aircraft.

In those and other states, poorly paid pilots, shortages of resources and mechanics as well as a lack of navigation equipment have contributed to the problem as have visibility problems, particularly during night flights which are favored by cargo carriers, it said.

Another factor in the high accident rate is "adventure flying, mostly by adventurers from outside the continent, largely from Europe ... with passengers watching game and other natural attractions," Kossi said.

He urged African governments to ban the import of aircraft more than 20 years old -- particularly those obtained cheaply from the former Soviet bloc -- create autonomous airline regulation bodies and do away with shoddy and corrupt registration systems.

The conference, attended by civil aviation authorities, aircraft manufacturers, navigation system producers and airline representatives from across Africa, is looking at ways to reduce the number of accidents by 50 percent by 2010.

But Kossi said even with such an improvement, aviation safety in Africa will still fall short of world standards.


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## hkskyline

*Central African countries, Morocco to launch new airline *

LIBREVILLE, Feb 24 (AFP) - Central African officials and Royal Air Maroc (RAM) signed a protocol here Thursday to launch a new African airline as a joint venture under the name Air Cemac. 

The new airline will be a regional one for nations in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC in French) and the deal "takes into account the specifics of each member country," RAM chairman Mohamed Berrada announced. 

Africa has already seen troubled bids to keep a multinational airline operating and profitable, with costly and often disastrous consequences because of chaotic management and sometimes rampant abuse and corruption. 

Much excitement surrounds the new venture for which the royal Moroccan national carrier and central African transport and aviation officials laid the groundwork in Gabon, during a state visit to the country by King Mohammed VI, though the airline was not part of his official programme. 

"Each state must give traffic rights to the community company, provide a good safety environment and authorise Air Cemac to be self-operating" with regard to maintenance on the ground, Central African Republic's Transport Minister Sonny M'pokomandji told AFP. 

"This is a global accord which lays out the main principles" for the joint venture, Berrada said on behalf of RAM, which will run a holding company in charge of the fleet. 

"For Morocco, RAM commits itself to provide Air Cemac with aircraft to ensure flight schedules, aircraft maintenance and technical personnel and whatever else is needed to make the firm viable," M'pokomandji said. 

Berrada said the Air Cemac fleet will initially consist of three large long-haul passenger aircraft and regional jets. Alongside the RAM-run holding company, national companies will be set up in which it will be the majority shareholder. 

The scheme, first mooted at the end of 2001, involves the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The sixth CEMAC nation, Cameroon, is still hesitant about getting involved. 

The main aircraft "maintenance work will take place in Casablanca", where RAM has its headquarters, Berrada said. Each national company to be set up "will ask for flight times with the number of hours and regional and international destinations to be sold by the holding company," he added. 

The executive secretary of CEMAC who signed the accord, Jean Nkuete of Cameroon, said the negotiations among states can start "now", in order to see the first Air Cemac plane carry out a scheduled flight "by the end of the year". 

"Headquarters will have exclusive control for five years of intercontinental traffic, by far the most profitable, and will run these flights directly," said a source close to the dossier, ahead of the signing ceremony. 

"The national subsidiaries will keep their prerogatives in the continental and regional markets and will be able to lease flight hours to headquarters." 

RAM flies to some three dozen destinations in Europe. 

Promoters say the arrangement will help avert a repeat of errors that doomed Air Afrique in 2002. 

"Air Afrique died because of bad management and squabbles among its member states," M'pokomandji told AFP last week. 

"We took that into account while creating a structure that will be based in our countries with a management that will be free of all political contingencies."


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## hkskyline

*Morocco and Central African countries combine to launch new airline*
Air Cemac to initially consist of three large long-haul passenger aircraft and regional jets
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Friday, February 25, 2005

LIBREVILLE: Central African officials and Royal Air Maroc (RAM) signed a protocol here Thursday to launch a new African airline as a joint venture under the name Air Cemac.

The new airline will be a regional one for nations in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (Cemac in French) and the deal "takes into account the specifics of each member country," RAM chairman Mohamed Berrada announced.

Africa has already seen troubled bids to keep a multinational airline operating and profitable, with costly and often disastrous consequences because of chaotic management and sometimes rampant abuse and corruption.

Much excitement surrounds the new venture for which the royal Moroccan national carrier and Central African transport and aviation officials laid the groundwork in Gabon, during a state visit to the country by King Mohammed VI, though the airline was not part of his official program.

"Each state must give traffic rights to the community company, provide a good safety environment and authorize Air Cemac to be self-operating" with regard to maintenance on the ground, Central African Republic's Transport Minister Sonny M'pokomandji told AFP.

"This is a global accord which lays out the main principles" for the joint venture, Berrada said on behalf of RAM, which will run a holding company in charge of the fleet.

"For Morocco, RAM commits itself to provide Air Cemac with aircraft to ensure flight schedules, aircraft maintenance and technical personnel and whatever else is needed to make the firm viable," M'pokomandji said.

Berrada said the *Air Cemac fleet will initially consist of three large long-haul passenger aircraft and regional jets*. Alongside the RAM-run holding company, national companies will be set up in which it will be the majority shareholder.

The scheme, first mooted at the end of 2001, involves the *Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon*. The sixth Cemac nation, Cameroon, is still hesitant about getting involved.

The main aircraft "maintenance work will take place in Casablanca," where RAM has its headquarters, Berrada said. Each national company to be set up "will ask for flight times with the number of hours and regional and international destinations to be sold by the holding company," he added.

The executive secretary of Cemac who signed the accord, Jean Nkuete of Cameroon, said the negotiations among states can start "now," in order to see the first Air Cemac plane carry out a scheduled flight "by the end of the year."

"Headquarters will have exclusive control for five years of intercontinental traffic, by far the most profitable, and will run these flights directly," said a source close to the dossier, ahead of the signing ceremony.

"The national subsidiaries will keep their prerogatives in the continental and regional markets and will be able to lease flight hours to headquarters." RAM flies to some three dozen destinations in Europe.

Promoters say the arrangement will help avert a repeat of errors that doomed Air Afrique in 2002.

"Air Afrique died because of bad management and squabbles among its member states," M'pokomandji told AFP.

"We took that into account while creating a structure that will be based in our countries with a management that will be free of all political contingencies."


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## hkskyline

*Sudan, Uganda Renew Air Link *
by Steven Candia
07 March 2005

Kampala, Mar 07, 2005 (New Vision/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --

SUDAN on Saturday resumed flights to Uganda after 10 years, heralding a new chapter in the the two countries' diplomatic relations.

A Sudan Airways Boeing 727 flight SD 320 touched down at Entebbe Airport at about 10:00am, making a historic landing at the airport for the first time since May 1995.

The resumption of direct flight links between Khartoum and Entebbe via Juba was greeted with joy and dance as drums roared in the background at the airport and at the Speke Resort Munyonyo. The flight will be once a week.

On board was a 78-man delegation, comprising ministers, businessmen and a 10-man crew led by Sudan Aviation minister Ali Tamim Fartak. The team was met by the communication state minister, Tom Butiime.

Speaking at Munyonyo, Butiime described the occasion as a "significant turning point in the bilateral relations between Uganda and Sudan."


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## SkylineTurbo

*Virgin Nigeria Airline Raises Equity*

Nigerian institutional investors have snapped up a majority 51 percent equity stake worth USD$26 million in Nigeria's new national carrier, part-owned by Britain's Virgin Group, the airline said on Tuesday.

The new company, Virgin Nigeria Airlines, is due to begin operations later this year and replaces Nigeria's former flagship carrier, state-owned Nigeria Airways, which was liquidated in 2003 with debts of USD$60 million.

Virgin Nigeria's chief executive Simon Harford said in a statement the investor base of the new company was now in place after the private placement.

Virgin holds a 49 percent stake and the government has no equity. Institutional investors are expected to sell half of their 51 percent stake in an initial public offer on the Nigerian Stock Exchange once the airline gets airborne.

Virgin Nigeria has already ordered a number of aircraft on lease and plans to operate domestic and regional routes in Africa, and international destinations including the Middle East and Europe.

Privately-owned Virgin, whose Virgin Atlantic already operates the lucrative London-Lagos route, was appointed as the technical and strategic investor in the carrier last September after talks with South African Airlines fell through.

The new operator may be prevented from flying direct to the United States, however, because of a dispute between Washington and Britain over competition policy.


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## hkskyline

*Work is Underway On Tunisia's Biggest International Airport *

Tunis, Mar 07, 2005 (Tunisia Online/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --

The Tunisian daily Le Quotidien writes that civil engineering work on an international airport in Enfidha located some 75 kilometres from Tunis, has started. The new airport will ease the pressure on the capital's airport 'Tunis-Carthage' while giving a new impetus to the region's economy.

With a total cost of 600 million Tunisian dinars, the new airport will have a capacity of 30 million passengers a year. It will cover an area of 5700 hectares and will necessitate the participation of several local and international engineering companies. It is expected to be operational by 2008.

Its ideal location at the crossroads between the tourist resorts of Nabeul, Hammamet, Sousse and Kairouan is attracting foreign investors. An Italian engineering company has already started construction work for a nearby industrial area for 180 Italian companies that will relocate in the area. According to Le Quotidien, some Italian investors are planning to build a Marina in Hergla, near Sousse. The newspaper adds that once completed the new international airport whose name is still not known, will be attributed on the basis of a 40- year lease to an international company.

Apart from 'Tunis -Carthage' the country's biggest airport, there are currently 6 international airports in Tunisia, namely in Djerba, Gafsa, Tozeur, Monastir, Sfax and Tabarka. More than 5 million tourists visit Tunisia each year.


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## hkskyline

*Heathrow spat could hit Nigeria *
Carl Mortished, International Business Editor
10 March 2005
The Times

THE battleground for open skies between Europe and the US is shifting to Nigeria where a new airline bearing the Virgin brand is demanding the right to fly to US airports.

Virgin Nigeria, which will be 49 per cent owned by Virgin Atlantic, wants to take over the Lagos-New York route once flown by Nigerian Airways but the US Government is threatening to block the carrier in a tit-for-tat squabble between Washington and London over landing rights at Heathrow.

A number of Nigerian institutions yesterday subscribed $26 million (Pounds 13.5 million) for a majority holding in the new airline, the latest spin-off of Sir Richard Branson's brand.

The collapse in 2003 of the corruption-plagued and accident-prone Nigerian Airways, ended direct flights between the US and Nigeria, a link that Nigerians have sought to restore.

The Government, led by Olusegun Obasanjo, cut the state link with the new airline and placed Nigerian Airways's former routes up for grabs to a foreign airline partner.

Concerns about safety and drug trafficking led to the loss of the New York landing rights. However, Nigeria's hopes to end its transatlantic isolation are being threatened by a quarrel between Britain and the US. US government officials have hinted that Virgin Atlantic's affiliate might be viewed as a Trojan horse for Sir Richard who is accused by Washington of perpetuating a cartel at Heathrow, that excludes new US entrants. "(It is) very unfair to permit the airlines of an anti-competitive regime such as the UK to benefit from the unrestricted opportunity available under the US-Nigeria Open Skies Agreement," said Joseph Gregoire, a US embassy official in Nigeria.

Virgin said yesterday there was no reason to deny the new airline access to US airports because the new carrier was majority owned by Nigerians.

The new carrier is seeking aircraft from Boeing and will fly to regional capitals as well as domestic routes.

Virgin Nigeria also plans to fly long-haul to South Africa, the Gulf and, alongside Virgin Atlantic, to London.

"The business plan is not dependent on flights to New York," said a Virgin spokesman.

But US flights are key to the Nigerian Government which is keen to tap into the resources and funds of expatriate Nigerians, hoping to entice home a generation that fled a succession of military dictatorships.

The collapse of Nigerian Airways coincided with a rush of new investment into Nigeria's vast oil reserves, a windfall for BA and Virgin.

The European carriers earn big profits from their virtual duopoly, shuttling oil executives on flights to Lagos that are always filled to bursting and Virgin has added twice-weekly flights to Port Harcourt, the capital of the oil producing region in Nigeria.

Virgin Nigeria, however, will not have a free ride. Several entrepreneurs in Nigeria have set up effective domestic airlines, such as Chanchangi Airline and Bellview.

Bellview is seeking to expand with a regional network and flights to India.

FACT FILE
* Nigeria is the largest nation in sub-Saharan Africa, with 137m people
* It ranks 4th, equal with Kuwait, among Opec oil exporters, producing 2.3m barrels per day
* Oil accounts for 95% of foreign exchange and 65% of government revenues
* Most of the population is poor, with per capita GDP of $900 (Pounds 466)


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## SkylineTurbo

*"We're Flying!"*

Accra Mail (Accra)

March 15, 2005 
Posted to the web March 15, 2005 

Ghana International Airlines receives IATA code "GO" 

...and announces destinations 

Ghana International Airlines Limited (GIA) yesterday announced that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has recognised the airline and issued the new national carrier with the airline code "GO".

GIA is now able to publish in Computer Reservation Systems, allowing travel agents in every corner of the world to view flight operations during the summer of 2005.

Destinations launched by GIA during the summer will include Lagos, Abidjan, Monrovia, Freetown, Bamako, Ouagadougou, Banul, Conakry and Dakar.

In the winter schedule, GIA plans to add non-stop service between Accra and London and between Accra and Dusseldorf.

"The new national airline will become a flag bearer for Ghana across Africa and indeed, across the world", said J. Ralph Atkin, Chief Executive Officer of GIA. "Ghanaians everywhere will be proud of GIA".

GIA is the new national carrier of Ghana and is a Ghanaian company formed in partnership between the Government of Ghana and a consortium of international private investors.

Operating a fleet of modern and efficient Boeing 767-300ER and MD-90 aircraft, GIA plans to develop Accra as the "Gateway to Africa", providing connections from Europe and North America to Accra and onward within Africa.

Yesterday ADM reported that the schedules would be published "any time from now".


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## hkskyline

*Kenya Airways Records Growth in Passenger Numbers*
by Kimathi Njoka
15 March 2005
All Africa

Nairobi, Mar 14, 2005 (The East African/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --

Improved traffic connections, realignment of the network frequencies and introduction of new destinations have spurred growth in Kenya Airways' passenger numbers, according to chief executive officer Titus Naikuni.

Over the past two years, the company has added new destinations while modernising its fleet under the modernisation programme, which is expected to end in May this year when it receives the last of its ultramodern Boeing 777.

Last year, the company introduced flights to the Far East - Hong Kong and Thailand.

According to the company trading results for the third quarter, the Middle East and Asia registered the highest growth in passenger numbers compared to European and African regions.

Bangkok topped the destinations with 45 per cent followed by Hong Kong at 35 per cent.

Mumbai followed closely at 29 per cent.

With its biggest aircraft, the Boeing 777 flying the European routes, the airline registered modest growth in passenger numbers. The aircraft has 322 seats compared with the 216 available on the B767s.

The B777 now operates three weekly flights to London Heathrow and two to Amsterdam Schiphol in addition to seven and five flights respectively operated to these destinations on the B767.

According to the results, the airline offered 1,867 Average Seat Kilometres (ASKs), up from 1,603 the previous year.

European capacity grew by 19 per cent, mainly from the introduction of the new Boeing 777-200ER on both the London and Amsterdam routes.

Capacity to the Middle East and Asia region achieved a year-on-year growth of 19 per cent as a result of full operations of the Bombay and Dubai evening flights on the bigger Boeing 767s, which was made possible by the acquisition of the sixth Boeing 767.

Southern Africa region registered a capacity growth of 26 per cent following the introduction of the Mombasa - Johannesburg service on Sundays, the operation of the larger B777 aircraft on Sundays to Lusaka-Lilongwe and the increased B767 operations on the Lusaka, Lilongwe and Harare routes.

The West African market grew by 11 per cent after some B737 flights were substituted with the larger B767s to Kinshasa, Accra and Abidjan and due to increased operations to Douala and Abidjan.

Passenger numbers within Africa, but excluding Kenya, grew by 15 per cent from the previous year's figure of 209,626 passengers.

The other regional markets showed minor increases attributable to frequency and equipment adjustments, except for northern Africa whose 8 per cent growth was driven mainly by the introduction of Djibouti as a new destination.


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## hkskyline

*E. African Airlines Suspends Its Flights *
by Joseph Olanyo
16 March 2005
All Africa

Kampala, Mar 15, 2005 (The Monitor/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --

East African Airlines (EAA), has suspended all its flights to Johannesburg, South Africa.

The plane, Boeing 737-200 series that used to fly twice a week to Johannesburg every Tuesday and Saturday, is now parked at Entebbe International Airport's bay 2 near the cargo area.

Johannesburg has been the airline's only route.

It is not clear why EAA stopped its bi-weekly flights to the lucrative Johannesburg market. However, sources at the airport that preferred anonymity say EAA stopped its flights last month due to increasing loses.

The biting competition in the aviation industry is said to be mounting a lot of pressure on the carrier.

"I do not know what they are up to and I do not think they are going anywhere. It is all about capilatisation problem. They are broke. They need capitalisation," the source said.

The airline's woes are blamed on what the sources called poor management problems.

"There is a problem. A serious management problem. The airline lacks proper commercial decisions that can be taken. If you have a person who is sound, he or she can tell you to fly or not to fly. But he cannot allow you to go on gambling like this. They need to have a sound commercial set up to put the house in order," a senior airline official said.

EAA's Chief Executive Officer, Mr Benedict Mutyaba, confirmed the suspension of the flights.

He said the suspension was as a result of what he called "low season" and that they want to concentrate on their expected Entebbe-Nairobi route.

"We suspended operations to Johannesburg route because of the low season. We thought it was better for us to start Nairobi because the returns would be higher here," he said.

Adding "As an airline, you have to decide on the profitability. So we are going to wait until April when we start the Nairobi route. We did an internal appraisal and found out that two flights to Nairobi will be good," Mutyaba said on Saturday.

He said EAA would start operating on the Entebbe-Nairobi route with effect from April 1 2005.

He said the airline has already finalised with arrangements to start flights to the lucrative route.

"We shall dedicate two flights daily on the Entebbe-Nairobi route," he said.

He also refuted allegations that the aircraft is in bad mechanical condition.

"That aircraft is very good. It has just come from a major check. The aircraft goes for major checks every two years whether you fly or not. We got this aircraft from United Airlines in 1987 compared to other Boeings 737s that are flying."

In a bid to cut costs, Mutyaba said the airline has since reduced its workforce from the original 400 to the current 50. Of this 30 percent are the crew.

"Our costs have been low. What we do not want to do is to have flights on routes where you cannot have good yields. We are looking at Juba. We could have started with Congo but because of the bilateral issues, we have not," Mutyaba said.

He said the airline is going into partnership with Air Zimbabwe, which is expected to start flying into Uganda next month (April).

While EAA insists that the future is bright, airline sources say it may take a while before the carrier bounces back to profits.

Some think that the current woes of the airlines could be the final stroke to the airline's operations.

Whereas the idea was to put up a profitable airline following the collapse of the defunct Uganda Airlines, East African Airlines does not get any incentives from the government. Uganda and Somalia could be the only countries in the whole world that do not have a state owned flag carrier.

NO MEMO: Mr Igundura

Unless the airline is supported, chances of having a local carrier are slim.

Globally, many airlines are now seeking to break free from constrains that bilateral negotiations impose on their route networks. They are investing in foreign airlines and forming alliances to gain access to traffic for which they would otherwise not be able to compete.

Many US airlines for example, are making determined efforts to expand their markets by developing their international networks because of intense competition and reduced prospects of profitability in their deregulated domestic markets. At the same time the mounting costs of supporting state owned flag carriers is forcing all governments to examine the prospects of privatisation.

In some cases the prospects for privatisation could be considerably enhanced if existing restriction on foreign ownership were to be relaxed, and more and more governments are beginning to show their willingness to do this.

Aviation experts contend that there is no African airline, which is doing well. It is said that unless they find ways of teaming up and code share, the future remains bleak for the continent.

Airlines spend between $5,000 and $10,000 every one-hour they fly in terms of fuel and maintenance costs. CAA also charges between $15 and $1,000 as landing fees depending on the size of the aircraft.

CAA Director of Air Transport and Regulatory Affairs, Mr Kabbs Twijuke, confirmed that the airline had stopped flights to Johannesburg. He however, did not say why the airline had stopped flights.

"They have not yet told us officially that they have stopped and why they have stopped. What we can say is that they have stopped to fly to Johannesburg at the moment. I would not want to speculate. It would be unfair," Twijuke said.

CAA Manager Public Relations, Mr Ignie Igundura, also says the airline has not sent any official communication.

"They ought to have communicated and called something like a press conference. But they just suspended quietly and sat down," Igundura said.

"We received a memo saying that we shall not be flying to Johannesburg at the moment due to operational reasons," an official of the airline, preferring anonymity, said.

Mutyaba, Mr Justine Okot, former Director of the defunct East African Airways and Mr Patrick Kabunakuki, the proprietor of Sunrise Newspaper, are the current directors of EAA.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Sam Kuteesa and Mr Ramesh Masrani, the Managing Director Speedbird Group of Companies are also named as shareholders of the airline.

EAA started operating in December 2002, following the collapse of the Uganda Airlines, the country's national carrier. In July 2003, it ceased its own flights to Nairobi, and in August 1, the same year, started booking its passengers on KQ's flights through a code-share agreement.

However, the agreement was cancelled last year, after Kenya Airways insisted that East Africa Airlines could not enter similar agreements with other airlines.

In turn, East African Airlines argued that as the only Uganda-owned international airline in operation, it should be given the status of designated the national carrier, including the routes formerly operated by the defunct Uganda Airlines, which collapsed in the 1990's.

Currently, the government, through CAA, is mediating talks between the two airlines aimed at taking away one of Kenya Airway's four weekly flights and giving it to East Africa Airlines. Industry sources argue that this is the only way the young airline can survive.

KQ operates four daily flights to the lucrative Entebbe-Nairobi route.

EAA is the second local airline to suspend flights since the collapse of AfricaOne.

Poor management, wrangles, capitalisation and competition knocked AfricaOne out of business within months of existence. Now EAA has to wait for a while before they may resume operations. As of now, Uganda has to rely on foreign airlines.


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## hkskyline

*South African Airways to launch new service from Washington*
17 March 2005
Airline Industry Information

South African carrier South African Airways has announced that in July 2005 it will launch new direct service between Washington Dulles International Airport and Johannesburg International Airport in South Africa.

The new flight will be operated four times a week and will include an operational fuel stop in Accra, Ghana. The service will be operated with a Boeing 747-400 in a three-class configuration.


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## hkskyline

*Air Tanzania to Add More Flight Routes *
Moses Serugo
17 March 2005
All Africa

Kampala, Mar 17, 2005 (The Monitor/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --

Air Tanzania will introduce flights to Dubai, Mumbai, Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, Ms Catherine Mpanga, the South African Airways (SAA) and Air Tanzania Airport Manager for Uganda has said.

"We also have plans to procure a new generation 737-800 aircraft that can seat up to 157 passengers instead of the 107-seats aircraft that we are using currently," Mpanga told The Monitor recently.

She said this is part of the airline's route expansion plan for this year.

Integrated operations between SAA and Air Tanzania in Uganda began in March 2003.

SAA owns 49 percent shares in Air Tanzania while the government of Tanzania owns 51 percent. Air Tanzania operates four weekly flights out of Entebbe to destinations like Kilimanjaro, Dar-es-Salaam, Zanzibar, the Comoros Islands and Johannesburg with onward connections courtesy of its SAA partner.


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## SkylineTurbo

*KLM to resume flights to Addis Ababa via Khartoum at the end of March*

ADDIS ABABA, March 19, 2005 (Sudan Tribune) -- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, part of Air France-KLM SA will resume its flights via Khartoum Airport at of the end of current March, the official Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) reported. 

The Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, announced at a reception party Friday that KLM Company is going to make two flights a week between Addis Ababa and Amsterdam via Khartoum International Airport. 

Effective March 31, 2005, Flight KL555 Amsterdam-Khartoum-Addis Ababa-Amsterdam will be operated twice weekly with Boeing 767-300 ER equipment, departing from Schiphol on Thursdays and Saturdays at 10:30 hrs. 

KLM expects that the services to Khartoum and Addis Ababa will not only be attractive to the local market, but also to passengers transfering at Schiphol Airport from the United States, Great Britain and Scandinavia.


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## hkskyline

*Kenya Airways targets China, Turkey routes *

NAIROBI, March 21 (Reuters) - Kenya Airways is targeting eight new routes in 2005, two of them flying to Shanghai as part of a strategic shift towards the Far East, the airline's Chief Executive Officer Titus Naikuni said on Monday.

Kenya Airways hopes to establish routes to Shanghai by June, via existing flights to Bangkok and Dubai, after the Kenyan government struck a bilateral air service deal with China.

"We've been colonised to think there is only business in Europe," Naikuni told business reporters in Nairobi.

"It (China) has enormous potential. A lot of traders from Africa are going into China," he said.

Kenya Airways also plans routes to Istanbul in Turkey; Bamako, Mali; Livingstone, Zambia; Dakar, Senegal; Freetown, Sierra Leone and Maputo, Mozambique.

"The vision we have as Kenya Airways is to link up the whole of Africa, not just Africa with the outside. That's my dream to see KQ in every African country," Naikuni told Reuters.
ADVERTISEMENT

However, he said expansion into Africa was slow because some governments wanted to safeguard their national carriers from competition.

"Our biggest hurdle, especially in Africa is getting that (bilateral) agreement. There's a lot of protectionism going on," Naikuni said.

He declined to give financial details before annual results are announced in May, but said Kenya Airways, one of Africa's few profitable carriers, performed well in the year to March.

"Our passenger numbers have grown in double-digit numbers and for the first time in history of the company we have achieved two million passengers in the year ending this month," Naikuni said.

The carrier, which wants to modernise its fleet, will take delivery of two new Boeing 777s in April and June, and is considering buying more aircraft, Naikuni said.

Kenya Airways is listed on the Dar Es Salaam, Nairobi and Kampala stock exchanges. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which is part of Air France-KLM , owns 26 percent of the airline.

Naikuni said the airline, which closed at 22.75 shillings on Monday, was undervalued. "To me, the current price should hover around 30 shillings," he said.

Kenya Airways hit a year low of 5.95 shillings in January.


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## hkskyline

*KLM to Begin Amsterdam - Addis Flight *

Addis Ababa, Mar 20, 2005 (The Daily Monitor/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will start flying to Ethiopia with its first flight taking place on March 31, 2005, the airlines officials stated on Friday.

The flight service - Amsterdam-Khartoum-Addis-Amsterdam will take place twice a week - on Thursdays and Saturdays- on an extended Boeing 767 airplane.

"Starting flight services in Ethiopia has been on our minds for the past ten years, but it never happened due to duty constraint and economic downsize," Pieter de Man, General Manager of KLM Eastern Africa said.

"We believe that this new flight service will assist the blooming flower industry in Ethiopia. Our flights have the capacity to transport flowers, vegetables and fruits via its direct return route," he added.

The plane also is equipped with enough space to transport 220 passengers and still has enough space in its belly to carry 15,000 kilos of cargo, assuming that the flight is a full one. If the number of passengers is low, the plane can carry up to 30,000 kilos of cargo, it was stated.

"Our airliner has 500 combined network destinations, making it the biggest in the world and we are proud to add Ethiopia to that number," de Man said.

"Ethiopia has the potential to become a major tourist site and some tour operators operating out of Holland have given me a very positive response by welcoming the idea. Actually, we have 15-20 tour operators working on a small scale," he stated.

The manager also staid that the cargo space on the first flight had already been sold out, showing that there will be more contact with the blooming horticulture market in Ethiopia.

"KLM and Ethiopian have signed an agreement whereby in special occasions, passengers from Amsterdam could arrive in Addis through KLM and be passed on to Ethiopian Airlines to be taken to their destinations and vice versa. This does not mean that we are full fledged partners, but we just have a commercial agreement," de Mont added.

KLM currently has flight schedules to Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya, Ghana, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa.


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## hkskyline

*Virgin Nigeria spreads its wings *
By ROGER BRAY
23 June 2005
Financial Times

Virgin Nigeria will launch flights between Lagos and London, with the service scheduled to start next week. In the first fortnight there will be only one flight in each direction but after that there will be three round trips a week. Flights by Airbus 340-300 with 40 business class, 28 premium economy and 187 economy seats will leave Lagos on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 12.35pm, arriving at Heathrow's Terminal Three at 7.30pm.

Southbound services will depart at 8.10pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, arriving at 3.10am the following morning. The airline is owned 51 per cent by Nigerian institutional investors with the other 49 per cent held by Virgin Atlantic.


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## hkskyline

*INTERVIEW-Kenya Airways sees strong growth for 3-4 yrs -CEO *
By C. Bryson Hull

NAIROBI, June 24 (Reuters) - Kenya Airways expects to sustain its current strong growth for the next three to four years, especially as African economies are opening up, Chief Executive Titus Naikuni said on Friday.

The national carrier, 26 percent owned by Air France-KLM's KLM Royal Dutch subsidiary, last month posted the highest annual profit in its 28-year history.

Annual net profit tripled to 3.88 billion Kenya shillings ($50.79 million) from 1.3 billion due to cost-cutting and higher passenger loads. Earnings per share leapt to 8.40 shillings from 2.82 shillings.

"We may not be able to sustain, perhaps, the higher numbers we have had in the last one year long term, but in the short term, it is achievable," Naikuni told Reuters in an interview. The opening up of economies in Africa is fuelling the growth, he said.

"The more countries open up, the more people travel. We are seeing a lot of that happening now in Africa. So I'm still confident we will continue to see the growth we've been seen as delivering last year, especially within Africa," Naikuni said.

Naikuni said he expected it to continue "for the three to four years, barring any natural calamity."

The record profits will be spent on modernising the fleet and ground facilities, training staff and increasing the dividend to shareholders, he said.

Kenya Airways on Monday took delivery of its third Boeing 777-200, ending the first phase of its fleet modernisation programme.

No decision has been made on whether to purchase new jets from Airbus or Boeing , Naikuni said, without revealing how many aircraft the company planned to acquire.

"It depends on what the offer is on the table. We are talking to both," he said. "We will be able to make that decision within the next two months."

OPEN BORDERS

For the passenger base to keep growing, African nations must open up immigration and visa rules to permit easier travel, with improved security screening to minimise risk, Naikuni said.

"We talk of open skies, and then we talk of open borders. Perhaps we should talk of open borders, before we talk of open skies. I think we should have freer movement of people," Naikuni said.

"If you look at the history of trade, it is people moving."

Kenya Airways, one of Africa's few profitable carriers, managed to avoid the sting of higher fuel prices that hurt profits across the industry, due to high passenger demand and a successful hedging programme.

But Naikuni said customers will soon have to accept higher fares as fuel prices rise. Oil prices on Friday touched a record $60 a barrel again on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and many analysts foresee prices staying high in the long term.

"I think it's high time people accepted that if you've got to get the services we have been providing as an industry, there will be increased fares," he said.

"We can't go sustaining the growth and modernisation that is required by the industry, or by customers, without people paying for it," Naikuni said, adding that he expected Kenya Airways to continue passing higher fuel costs on to customers.


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## hkskyline

*Sudanese airline introduces second weekly Nairobi-Khartoum flight *
27 June 2005
BBC 

Text of report by Ken Ramani entitled "Airline introduces new flight to Juba" published by Kenyan newspaper The Standard website on 27 June

Sudan Airways has introduced a second weekly flight between Nairobi and Khartoum, a senior manager with the airline has said.

Mr John Okoth Daniel, the regional manager, said the Sunday flight will have a stopover in Juba and will be operational within two weeks. The airline operates one weekly flight to Khartoum. The Sunday flight will pass through Juba enroute to Khartoum. "We are introducing a second flight to make it easier for those visiting Juba to leave without having to wait for seven days," Daniel told The Standard.

He further disclosed that foreigners travelling to Sudan through Juba will not be subjected to normal migration procedures on arriving in Khartoum. "All these procedures will be completed in Juba and the flight will thereafter be considered local," said Daniel.

Sudan Airways resumed flights on the Nairobi-Khartoum routes on 15 June after a nine year break. Daniel promised patrons low fares.

Mr Nasr-al-Din, the managing director, promised to continue flying modern aircrafts along the route. He said the airline was considering introducing flights to Mombasa, which he described as an international tourist hub. "We are confident that the reopening of the Nairobi route will consolidate bilateral ties between Kenya and Sudan," said Din.

Fighting officially ended in the Sudan on January 9, with the signing of a peace agreement between Khartoum and Sudan Peoples Liberation Army. Juba is only accessible from Nairobi through scheduled flights to Lokichogio [northern Kenya] where travellers must wait for unscheduled connecting flights.

The Sudanese flights have become popular with Kenyans who are flocking southern Sudan for a piece of the reconstruction cake. Economic activity is expected to intensify in the region when disbursement of the 4.8bn dollars pledged by the donor community for reconstruction begins.

Daniel said described business and investment opportunities in Juba as immense and urged Kenyans to take advantage of it. "It is only fair that Kenya makes a strong presence in Southern Sudan and Juba in particular since it hosted and chaired the talks that culminated in the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement," said Daniel.


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## hkskyline

*Nigeria plane makes emergency landing - passengers, crew unharmed*
29 June 2005

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - A plane made an emergency landing at a Nigeria airport Wednesday, grinding to a halt on the tarmac after one of its wheels collapsed, an aviation official said.

The IRS Airlines plane carrying 91 passengers and crew returned to Lagos airport shortly after takeoff when instrumentation showed a problem with the craft's hydraulic system, according to Sam Adurogboye, spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

No one was injured, Adurogboye said.

As the plane landed, one wheel exploded. Airstrips were closed as a rescue team cleared the runway, he said.

It was the third such incident this month in Nigeria. A Chanchangi Airlines flight careered out of control due to flooding on the runway in Lagos earlier this month, and an EAS airlines plane skid into a ditch at Jos airport further north. Passengers were also unhurt in both these accidents, aviation officials said.


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## hkskyline

*S.African Airways launches flights to Washington *

JOHANNESBURG, June 30 (Reuters) - South African Airways (SAA) [SAA.UL] will start flights to Washington on Friday as part of a financial turnaround strategy, it said on Thursday.

The state-owned airline said in a statement the Washington service would be operated 4 times a week via Accra in Ghana -- strengthening its position in Africa and across the Atlantic.

The flag carrier posted a pretax loss of 8.7 billion rand ($1.30 billion) in 2003/04, but appears on track to return to profit during the financial year which ended in March. Results are due in July.

"Our American routes have shown tremendous growth and adding a third destination to North America provides a wonderful opportunity for expanding our global route network," it said.

The airline already flies to New York and Atlanta. It hopes to join the Star Alliance of airlines before the end of the year.


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## hkskyline

*U.N. says Russian-built passenger plane crash lands in eastern Congo - no injuries*
30 June 2005

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - A Russian-made commercial airplane with faulty landing gear crash landed in eastern Congo, but no injuries were reported, a U.N. spokeswoman said Thursday.

The Antanov 26 belonging to the small commercial carrier Mango Airlines crash landed late Wednesday on a runway near the city of Goma after its landing gear failed, said U.N. spokeswoman Jaqueline Chenard.

The plane carrying eight passengers skidded off the runway and stopped 10 meters (33 feet) from nearby houses, said Chenard by telephone from the region. The passengers were shaken up, but no injuries were reported, she said.

The plane was arriving from Kasongo, located about 450 kilometers (280 miles) southwest of Goma.

Many rickety aircraft, often castoffs from old Soviet-bloc nations, are used in Congo, a vast central African nation the size of Western Europe.

Few passable roads traverse the vast country after decades of war and corrupt rule, forcing its impoverished people to rely on often-unsafe boats and planes.

In May, an Antonov-12 carrying 26 passengers and crew crashed into mountains south of Goma, killing all aboard. Earlier that month, an Antonov-26 clipped a treetop during its landing approach and crashed in central Congo, killing 10 of the 11 people aboard.


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## hkskyline

*Gabon court adjourns fatal air crash trial *

LIBREVILLE, June 30 (AFP) - A Libreveille court opened and adjourned Thursday the trial of four men accused of responsibilty for the crash of an airliner which killed 19 people a year ago.

Judge Jacques Lebama put off the case after procedural objections from the defence and lawyers for the victims of the crash of the twin turboprop HS-748 of private airline Gabon Express.

The defendants are the airline boss Robert Sobeck and pilot Mbia, who have been held in custody charged with manslaughter and wounding, along with the head of the Gabonese civil aviation department at the time, Jean-Pierre Obiang Zue, and the local head of the certification agency Veritas, Bernard Dabezies.

The plane, with 30 passengers and crew aboard, crashed into the sea off Libreville shortly after taking off on June 8 last year. Investigators allegedly found serious deficiencies in its maintenance and checks.


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## hkskyline

*South African Airways posts 966 mln rand net profit *

JOHANNESBURG, July 6 (Reuters) - South African Airways confirmed on Wednesday that it had posted a net profit of 966 million rand ($141.3 million) in 2004/05 compared to a 8.6 billion rand loss in the previous period.

The results had been partially announced by parent company Transnet when it released the group's results for the year to end-March on Monday. The flag carrier's shock loss in 2003/04 was triggered by a nearly 6 billion rand hedge book loss and impairment charges on aircraft.

The hedge book was closed during the year under review. SAA Chief Executive Officer Khaya Ngqula said the airline was on track to cut costs by 1.6 billion rand by 2007.

"In the year under review our operational costs have increased much slower than our revenue -- a simple formula we intend to pursue going into the future," said Ngqula in a statement.

He said the airline was reviewing its business model for the domestic market, following competition from budget carriers charging very low prices. It was also looking at its long-haul fleet strategy because of declining yields.

SAA is to be removed from the Transnet stable by March 31, 2006 -- operating as a separate company and reporting directly to the Public Enterprises Minister.


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## hkskyline

*Air France jet hits cow on landing in southern Nigeria*

LAGOS, July 7 (AFP) - An Air France jet ran into a stray cow as it landed among a herd roaming the airport in the southern Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt on Wednesday, the firm said, adding that no-one was hurt.

The Airbus A330 passenger liner was arriving overnight from Paris with 196 people on board when it drove into a group of cattle which had somehow strayed on to the tarmac, said Air France's spokeswoman in Nigeria, Moyo Areola.

"No passenger or crew was injured. The aircraft taxied safely to the gate on time at 04.34am local time (0334 GMT)," she said, in a statement.

"The aircraft is presently on the ground for safety reasons and will not be flown until all necessary safety precautions have been taken," she continued.

"A maintenance team is locally checking the aircraft and, in addition, an Air France mechanical team are on their way from Paris to further certify the safety of the aircraft," she said.

"Our flight for tonight, AF 875 to Paris, has been cancelled."

Airport workers were trying to round up the surviving cattle more than three hours after the accident and an investigation has been launched into how the herd breached the airport perimeter, said officials in Port Harcourt.

Passengers at Lagos airport said their flights to Port Harcourt had been delayed by three hours and that a tannoy announcement had said that at least five cows were loose in the airport and were being chased by ground crew.

Port Harcourt is the main centre of Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar oil industry and several international and domestic carriers serve its small, single-runway airport.

The incident is only the latest in a series of freak accidents in Nigeria involving stray cows.

Last month police in Lagos arrested a cow after it attacked and killed a bus driver who had stopped to urinate by the side of the road.

And 25 people were killed in May when a truck carrying traders to market swerved to avoid a cow and ploughed into a crowded cross-country bus.


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## hkskyline

*Air France resumes flights from Nigerian city after crash with cows *

LAGOS, July 8 (AFP) - Air France has resumed flights from the southern Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt, the airline said Friday, two days after an airliner arriving from Paris ploughed into a herd of cows on the runway.

None of the 196 passengers on board the Airbus A330 jet was injured in Wednesday's accident, which left at least six cattle dead on the tarmac, but the incident has increased concerns about Nigeria's aviation safety record.

Air France spokeswoman Moyo Adeola said that the A330 was still grounded at Port Harcourt while being checked over for damage but that a Boeing 777 had been diverted to cover the firm's four flights a week to and from Paris.

Nigerian press reports said that Aviation Minister Issa Yuguda has ordered an investigation into who was responsible for allowing the herd to stray and said that any other cows spotted near the runway would be shot on sight.

Nigeria's aviation industry has a patchy safety record and minor accidents and damage to planes is a regular occurrence. Last week a domestic jet airliner crash-landed on the tarmac at Lagos after its landing gear failed to deploy.

The last serious accident was in May 2002, when pilots lost control of a flight out of the northern city of Kano and scythed into an inner city district, killing around 100 passengers and dozens more on the ground.


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## hkskyline

*New boss named for Gabon's ailing airline *

LIBREVILLE, July 11 (AFP) - Gabon's President Omar Bongo has named a new managing director for near-bankrupt state airline Air Gabon, as the government hesitates between winding the company up or privatising it. 

The state-owned daily L'Union said Monday Jean-Robert Ngoulongana, former secretary general of the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) group of countries, had been appointed by a presidential decree to succeed Jerome Ngoua Bekale, who was in office for some 15 months. 

Set up in 1977, Air Gabon has debts estimated at 21 billion cfa francs (32 million euros, 38 million dollars) and is unable to pay its bills or its some 1,100 employees. 

It has only two ageing planes, one of which was grounded for weeks for repairs, halting services to other African destinations until last week. 

Long-haul routes to Europe, which account for 70 percent of turnover, have also been suspended for the past month after the lease expired on the Boeing 767 which operated them.


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## skipperBill

*GIA to Fly Next Month*

14 June 2005 (ghanaweb.com)The Ghana International Airline Limited (GIAL) has put in place all the necessary logistics and facilities to enable the airline to begin its operations next month.

It will start off on the regional routes, plying Conakry, Bamako, Ouagadougou, Banjul, Freetown and Monrovia.

The airline would also ply the long haul in partnership with Ethiopian Airlines, one of the continent’s most reliable airlines.

Presently, Radixx International, an international reservation software and hosting company based in Florida, has been engaged to complete the automation of the airline’s operations.

Radixx International will automate the ticketing, reservation and sales operations of the airline.

In line with this, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Radixx, Mr Ronald J. Peri made a dummy presentation of the system to members of the Ghana Distribution System Limited (GDS), which oversees the distribution of reservations for airlines in the country.

He said the airline would make it possible for people, especially agents to buy tickets or book reservations electronically.

“Radixx has helped resurrect six airlines that were almost on the verge of collapse through the automation of their systems,” Mr Peri said.

“When an airline’s system is automated, travellers would have the opportunity to buy their tickets with either credit, debit or re-load cards through the various Western Union money transfer systems currently in operation in the country,” he added.

Mr Peri said automating the systems would enable GIAL to have better control of the airline’s finances. He said automating the system would also help to solve the problem of overbooking as well as eliminate fraud in the airline’s operations.

According to Mr Peri, “installing the software will also help GIAL to keep track of its inventory as well as eliminate hidden cost that is predominant in the airline business.”

The software expert also said, it would be possible for the airline to make tickets less expensive since the system would eliminate the chain of middlemen that currently existed.

Mr Peri, however, stated that travel agents would not be left out when the airline commences its operations. He added that the services of the agents were a crucial element in making the airline survive, particularly at a time when the industry had become very competitive.

The Media Relations Officer of GIAL, Mr Sammy Crabe, said GIAL was still at the implementation stage and was doing everything possible to ensure that it commenced operations on schedule.

He said currently the Special Assistant to the CEO, Mr Sean Mendis, was in Berlin, Germany, participating in a slot conference, where he would negotiate for schedules in Frankfurt, Heathrow, Dusseldorf, Johannesburg and Accra.

The GIAL’s Vice-President, Operations, Mr Albert Vitale, who is also in the country to help finalise measures for the take-off of the airline, assured Ghanaians that GIAL would be the best thing to happen to the country’s aviation industry.”


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## skipperBill

*Now you can fly to London via Namibia*

July 12 2005 at 10:26AM(Independent Online) Air Namibia's new service to London offers South African passengers the double benefit of finding extra seats from increased capacity on the most popular route from South Africa along with more convenient connections than are provided by other non-direct airlines, according to Air Namibia's regional manager, Corné de Waal.

Air Namibia's new Johannesburg and Cape Town services to London via Windhoek offer passengers a great alternative route to the UK. The inaugural special fare of R3 880 from Johannesburg (R3 990 from Cape Town) has been extended for bookings made by September 30. 

The inaugural northbound flight to London via Windhoek departed last Saturday and Air Namibia's feeder network will provide easy links for the overnight northbound flights. 

De Waal said: "What is different to the previous London service is that, with just one quick and easy connection at Windhoek, you arrive in London fresh from your overnight long haul, without the need to reconnect to your final destination, unlike other non-direct carriers who offer the one-stop hop from South Africa."

'You arrive in London fresh from your overnight long haul' 
Air Namibia is offering special introductory fares for the route, and prices will stay highly competitive throughout the year. Additionally, for the youth market it remains the only airline to offer tickets that are extendable to two years' validity, perfect for working holidaymakers. 

For more information about Air Namibia and holiday destination information, call: 011-390-2876/7 or check out: www.airnamibia.com.na


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## skipperBill

*Nigeria, Ethiopia sign air service agreement * 


UPDATED: 10:00, July 08, 2005 (Addis Abeba) Nigeria and Ethiopia, both air traffic hubs in its own region, have signed a Bilateral Air Services Agreement to boost commerce and tourism between the two countries, according to a statement issued here on Thursday. 

Under the agreement, the Ethiopian Airlines, the national flag carrier of Ethiopia, will use the Lagos international airport as one of its operational hubs for other international destinations. 

"The agreement marks a significant step in the implementation of the 1999 Yamoussoukro decision to an unhindered access to the air in Africa," said the statement. 

Nigerian Aviation Minister Isa Yuguda, who signed the agreement on behalf of the Nigerian government, said the agreement was also in the spirit of the New Partnership for Africa's Development ( NEPAD) and African integration. 

"This agreement epitomizes the beginning of good economic interaction between the two countries and seamless movement of their nationals," he said. 

The minister expressed the hope that the agreement would further strengthen the mutual cooperation and relationship between the two countries and enhance economic development. 

According to Estifanose, director of Air Transport and Planning Department of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, the agreement "is a great manifestation of the political will of the two countries to implement the Yamoussoukro protocol on unhindered access to air movement within the continent." 

The air link between the two countries would further promote tourism and boost trade relations, he said, adding that the designate airlines would benefit maximally from the agreement. 

The Ethiopian Airline currently flies into 44 cities across Europe, the United States, Asia, Middle East and Africa. In Nigeria, it operates in Lagos and was formerly flying into Kano before it suspended operations there. It is currently expanding its network, which it said, aims to "bring Africa together." 

Source: Xinhua


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## hkskyline

*Airbus seeks to boost market edge in Africa as airlines replace ageing fleets*

NAIROBI, July 13 (AFP) - European aircraft giant Airbus said Wednesday it intends to increase it market edge in Africa over bitter US rival Boeing as the continent's leading airlines move to replace their ageing fleets.

Despite competition from Boeing which has won recent contracts from Kenya and Ethiopia's fast-growing flag carriers, Toulouse-based Airbus said it planned an active campaign to boost its 56-percent hold on the African aviation market.

"Airbus intends to build on its lead in Africa," said Hadi Akoum, the company's vice president for Africa. "We intend to win more than half of the estimated future African market with our family of modern, cost-efficient aircraft."

"Africa is set to experience unprecedented growth in the air transport sector," he told a news conference here. "Demand will be driven by the increasing trade and tourism ties between Africa and Europe, the Middle East and North America."

"I believe there is a big potential with many airlines operating used aircrafts which will be facing tough price increase ... they have to change and this is where we expect there will be potential for new airplanes," Akoum said.

He noted African airlines currently own some 280 planes. Many of the ones that are more than 20 years old and in need of replacement were manufactured by Boeing whose production base is in Seattle.

Presenting Airbus' market forecast for the next 20 years in a country whose national airline, Kenya Airways, flies an all Boeing fleet, Akoum said his company was determined to woo Kenya into the Airbus fold.

"Our relations with Kenya have been slowed down because they were finalizing the order and deliveries of those airplanes," he said, referring to Kenya Airways taking delivery this year of two long-haul Boeing 777 jumbo jets.

"What we are looking for is to ensure that Kenya Airways benefits from our experience worldwide experience in order to enhance their commercial an doperation capabilities," Akoum said. "We are looking to increase this relationship."

In addition to Kenya, Airbus is known to have made overtures to Ethiopian Airlines which also flies a predominantly Boeing fleet, according to industry sources.


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## hkskyline

*New plane, flight routes for Air Senegal International *

DAKAR, July 12 (AFP) - Air Senegal International on Tuesday announced the purchase of a new airplane and an expansion of the routes flown by the partially state-owned airline.

The 50 million-dollar purchase expands to five planes the size of the fleet of the Dakar-based airline, and will help service new routes linking the west African state to Ghana, Spain and Italy, communications director Makhtar Diop told AFP.

Air Senegal International currently also flies to Paris and Marseille in France, to Niger and to Burkina Faso.

The nearly five-year-old airline, which is 51 percent owned by Royal Air Maroc, boasted a passenger load of 420,000 people in 2004 and is on track to reach its goal of 490,000 passengers for 2005.


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## hkskyline

*Nigeria cannot secure cow crash airport because of shrines: official *

LAGOS, July 12 (AFP) - Nigerian officials investigating how an Air France passenger jet crashed into a herd of cows said Tuesday they could not fully protect the airport concerned without disturbing traditional African shrines.

Last week an airliner arriving from Paris in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt with 196 people on board ploughed into a herd of cattle that had strayed onto the tarmac, which is not fenced off from neighbouring villages.

No-one was hurt in the incident, but it has nonetheless proved an embarrassment to the Nigerian authorities, who have ordered an investigation.

"Local residents around Port Harcourt airport have insisted that we cannot cut the bush because their shrines are located there," said Adamu Abdullahi, a spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

Simple shrines and sacred groves dedicated to local deities are a common feature of life in rural Nigeria.

"The bush is not helping matters at all as it constitutes a serious security risk. The bush shields animals that stray into the airport," he told AFP.

"We are in talks with the authorities in Rivers State and representatives of the local community on this problem and we hope that it will soon be solved."

Port Harcourt is the main centre of Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar oil industry and its single-runway airport is served by several international and domestic carriers, including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air France.

Abdullahi said that of Nigeria's four international airports only Lagos was fully fenced off. Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano airport remain unenclosed and that the government is seeking funds to complete the job, he added.

In order to comply with international safety regulations the runways must be protected by 2006, he said, adding that it would cost 2.8 billion naira (21 million dollars / 17 million euros) to fence in just two of the three.


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## hkskyline

*New Ghana route for Virgin Nigeria *
By ROGER BRAY
14 July 2005
Financial Times

Newly launched airline Virgin Nigeria is scheduled to start flying from Lagos to Accra, the capital of Ghana, next week. From July 20 it will operate two round trips a day using Airbus A320 aircraft.

Virgin Nigeria began flying to London last month. Since then it has launched domestic services from Lagos to Abuja and Port Harcourt. Schedules allow day trips to and from all three short-haul destinations. Simon Harford, chief executive, hopes the airline, which is majority-owned by Nigerian investors with the balance held by Virgin Atlantic, will be operating on about nine routes by spring 2006.


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## hkskyline

*Flights resume in Nigeria after plane cleared off runway, minister visits *

LAGOS, July 14 (AFP) - Normal local and international flights resumed Thursday after disruption that lasted almost 24 hours following the closure of the Lagos airport tarmac by a heavily laden cargo jet from Dubai which overshot on landing, an airport spokesman said.

"Normal flights have resumed today (Thursday). We have been able to remove the aircraft that blocked the tarmac. Right now, the aviation minister is visiting the scene of the accident," Adamu Abdullahi, spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), said.

A Calabar-bound passenger stranded in Lagos since Wednesday following cancellation of her trip due to the accident, Agbo Adede, confirmed to AFP from the airport that normal flights have gradually resumed Thursday.

The DAS Air plane, which arrived the airport in heavy rain Wednesday from Dubai overshot the tarmac in the latest in a series of accidents to shake confidence in Nigeria's aviation industry.

No-one was reported hurt in the accident but many flights were cancelled or delayed as ground crews worked several hours to unload the plane and drag it away from the runway.

DAS Air is a British-based cargo airline serving Africa and the Middle East.

Lagos Airport's main runway was already undergoing repairs at the time of the accident and with the second runway currently used by both its domestic and international terminals the accident triggered many cancellations.

Last week an Air France jet arriving at the southern oil city of Port Harcourt with 196 passengers on board was damaged when it ran into a herd of cattle that had strayed onto the runway, killing several of them.

In recent months at least three airliners operated by domestic carriers have been damaged in bumpy landings caused by faulty landing gear.


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## hkskyline

*Thieves steal generator of Nigerian airport invaded by cows*

LAGOS, July 15 (AFP) - Unidentified thieves have stolen a back-up generator at the international airport in Port Harcourt, southern Nigeria, less than a week after an Air France passenger jet crashed into a herd of cows that strayed into its tarmac, an official said Friday. 

"The generator has been stolen by unknown thieves. I have just received the report. The police are investigating it. The incident is unfortunate," Adamu Abdullahi, spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said. 

Last week Wednesday, an Air France jet arriving from Paris in the oil-city with 196 people on board ploughed into a herd of cattle that had strayed onto the tarmac, which is not fenced off from neighbouring villages. 

No-one was hurt in the accident. 

The generator, owned by the state-run Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, mysteriously disappeared from the airport on Tuesday, forcing security to be tightened within and around the airport, the Punch newspaper reported Friday. 

Nigerian officials had told AFP on Tuesday they could not fully protect the airport without disturbing traditional African shrines. 

"Local residents around Port Harcourt airport have insisted that we cannot cut the bush because their shrines are located there," Abdullahi said. 

Simple shrines and sacred groves dedicated to local deities are a common feature of life in rural Nigeria. 

"The bush is not helping matters at all as it constitutes a serious security risk. The bush shields animals that stray into the airport," he told AFP. 

"We are in talks with the authorities in Rivers State and representatives of the local community on this problem and we hope that it will soon be solved," he said. 

Port Harcourt is the main centre of Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar oil industry and its single-runway airport is served by several international and domestic carriers, including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air France.


----------



## hkskyline

*Mozambique Boosts Anti-Terrorism Security At Airports *
28 July 2005

MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP)--Special security brigades started operating at Mozambique's airports Thursday in a drive to prevent terrorism and drug trafficking. 

The Mozambique News Agency said the force was made up of 57 agents trained by the Portuguese Public Security Police to control public and restricted areas of the airports, electronically inspect luggage and prevent of armed attacks, hijackings and other terrorist acts. 

The chairman of the Mozambique Airports company, Solomone Cossa, said that the new force would improve passenger safety and boost the fight against the narcotics trade. 

Mozambique is a known corridor for drug trafficking in southern Africa. Like many other developing countries, it suffers from lack of security equipment and expertise, making it a potential soft target for terrorism. 

The deployment of the anti-terrorism force comes three weeks after the London subway and bus bombings killed 56 and in the wake of the bombings in an Egyptian tourist resort.


----------



## hkskyline

*British Airways to suspend cargo flights to Zambia *

LUSAKA, July 28 (AFP) - British Airways is suspending cargo flights to Zambia as of August 9 due to the high cost of fuel, country manager Manatunga Nilanthi said Thursday. 

Nilanthi said the cost of fuel in Zambia was significantly higher than other countries in southern Africa. 

"It was becoming difficult and uneconomical to maintain the freight service," Nilanthi said in a statement. 

She said British Airways was spending over four million dollars (3.3 million euros) a year in fuel costs in Zambia, which she said was very high compared to other countries. 

The Export Growers Association of Zambia (ZEGA) said the suspension of the cargo flights by British Airways was likely to affect exports of fresh vegetables to Europe. 

"We used to export about 40 tonnes a week of vegetables and fresh flowers to the European market. The suspension will negatively impact our business," said Luke Mbewe, chairman of ZEGA.


----------



## hkskyline

*Kenya Airways passenger numbers up in Q1 *

NAIROBI, July 29 (Reuters) - Kenya Airways carried 524,029 passengers in the first quarter of its fiscal year ended June 30, a nearly 19 percent increase over the same period the previous year when it carried 441,781 passengers, the airline said on Friday. 

"The achieved cabin factor of 70.8 percent shows better performance than prior year's level of 69.1 percent," the airline said in a statement. 

"This has been the result of an improvement in the passenger traffic and the airline's efficient capacity management." 

The airline attributed the growth to introduction of new bigger Boeing 777 planes to flights on routes in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Southern Africa. 

Kenya Airways, one of Africa's few profitable airlines, said that it had the biggest rise in passenger traffic on its West Africa route after it replaced some of its Boeing 737 planes to Kinshasa, Accra and Abidjan with Boeing 767s. 

The route recorded a growth of 22 percent compared to the previous year. 

The number of domestic passengers jumped by 24 percent compared to the previous year, driven by higher traffic to Mombasa as a result of more tourists visiting the east African country due to relaxed travel advisories, the airline said. 

The company's shares ended trading on Friday at 66.00 Kenya shillings ($0.867) from 65.50 shillings on Thursday. 

Kenya Airways is listed on the Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Kampala stock exchanges. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which is part of Air France-KLM , owns 26 percent of the airline.


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## hkskyline

*Airbus backs off tendering for Morocco jets *

RABAT, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Airbus said on Friday it would not take part in tendering for the supply to Morrocan airline Royal Air Maroc (RAM) of four long-haul aircraft, leaving the potential $790 million deal to Boeing . 

The European planemaker said it had "regretfully" decided not to put in an offer by a July deadline because the airline's needs were not clear. 

"We are ready and willing to continue consultations and to discuss all proposals by RAM," an Airbus spokeswoman said in France, where the company is based. 

Airbus had initially offered its future A350 mid-sized carrier against Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in the tender to replace RAM's 757 and 767 Boeing aircraft, Airbus officials said. 

The purchase is part of a programme launched in 2000 for the purchase of 22 to 24 aircraft to renovate RAM's fleet of 32. 

The A350 and 787 are at the heart of a transatlantic fight between Boeing and Airbus for control of the novel mid-sized, long-range segment of the jet market. 

After redesigning its original concept for the A350 to include more seats, Airbus has been waging a counter-offensive against the 787 since the Paris Air Show in June, with the two rivals battling for every last plane order. 

"It's with regret that we withdraw our bid for this RAM deal," David Dufrenois, Airbus sales manager for Morocco, was quoted by the semi-official Le Matin newspaper as saying. 

"The terms of this tender are not clear and bid deadlines are too short," he added. 

Dufrenois spoke during a private lunch with a handful of journalists from local newspapers in Casablanca on Thursday. 

Some analysts say the rival jetmakers are treading carefully to avoid being played off against each other to depress prices as the industry recovers from a damaging recession. 

Aside from a previous order for four A321-300 short-haul Airbus jets, RAM's loyalties have mainly been with Boeing. 

Two of the A321s ordered in 2000 have been delivered and the other two will be delivered in 2007, Airbus said. 

Le Matin and business daily L'Economiste said RAM will make a decision on the long-haul deal in September and has set a July deadline for the two manufacturers to make their bids, without precise details.


----------



## hkskyline

Thursday August 11, 2:45 AM
*Royal Air Maroc Selects Boeing Dreamliner *

AP - Morocco's national airline plans to purchase up to five Boeing 787 jets, officials said Wednesday.

Royal Air Maroc and Boeing Co. said they signed a memorandum of understanding on July 31 for the airline to buy the fuel-efficient, long-range aircraft. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Moroccan carrier and Chicago-based Boeing, which builds most of its commercial planes in Washington state, expect to finish negotiations in September.

The 787 is slated to enter commercial service in 2008. Boeing said it has 257 total orders for the jets and commitments from 21 airlines.


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## hkskyline

*Eleven dead in DR Congo plane crash *

KINSHASA, Sept 5 (AFP) - Eleven people were killed on Monday when an Antonov 26 freight aircraft struck a tree near Isiro airport in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), aviation offials said. 

The death toll of 11, issued by the national aviation authority (RVA), was higher than a provisional figure of seven given by local officials and the UN-funded Okapi radio. 

"The accident has caused 11 deaths -- seven passengers, three Russian crew members and an escort, a member of the company that owned the aircraft," RVA director Emmanuel Mokoko told AFP. 

Deputy governor of Orientale province, Autsai Asenga Medard, earlier said the Antonov, owned by private airline Galaxie, caught fire after apparently hitting a tree as it came in to land at about 0630 GMT. 

"The weather was very bad at Isiro and that may be one of the reasons for the accident," Medard told AFP by telephone from the provincial centre, Kisangani. 

The plane crashed 1.5 kilometres (about a mile) short of the runway after flying from Beni, a town in eastern Nord-Kivu province, Okapi radio reported.


----------



## hkskyline

*Zambia reduces jet fuel price by five percent to avert aviation crisis *

LUSAKA, Sept 5 (AFP) - Zambia has decided to cut the price of jet fuel by five percent to deal with an aviation crisis that has seen British Airways cancelling its cargo flights to the southern African country, a senior state official said Monday.

Energy Minister George Mpombo said the government had decided to slash the fuel price in order to allow passenger and cargo carriers to uphold their Zambian routes.

Several commercial airlines had complained to Lusaka over the high fuel price, which was allegedly making the Zambian route unprofitable.

British Airways last month stopped its cargo flights to Zambia, which are by farmers to export fresh vegetables and flowers to the European Union, citing high jet fuel prices.

"We have decided to reduce the price of jet fuel by five percent. We now hope that the British Airways will resume their cargo flight to Zambia," Mpombo said.

Mpombo said the reduction would make Zambia one of the southern African countries offering cheaper jet fuel.

The price of jet fuel in Zambia before the reduction was about 75 dollars (60 euros) per litre.


----------



## hkskyline

*DR Congo moves to improve disastrous air crash record *

KINSHASA, Sept 10 (AFP) - After four plane crashes, three of them fatal, in a week the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday announced tighter safety measures, but operators warned there were no quick fixes for the aging mostly ex-military fleet. 

The latest crash on Friday killed thirteen people when a Ukrainian Antonov 26 operated by Air Kasai crashed during a storm near Brazzaville, on its descent to Kinshasa airport across the river in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

This fourth crash since September 5 pushed the government to announce a tightening of the country's aviation regulations. 

Transport minister Mwakasa told AFP on Saturday that of the 51 companies operating in the country 33 have now been banned from flying and "will remain nailed to the ground until they meet the regulatory requirements." 

The government also announced more frequent aircraft inspections and the banning of all aircraft more than 20 years old. 

But this regulation will be difficult to enforce in a country where more than half the aircraft are more than 20 years old and where, more than age, poor maintenance is one of the main causes of plane crashes. 

The DRC's aircraft fleet is largely composed of Ukrainian Antonov and Russian Ilyushin aircraft acquired by both civil organisations and military groups during the Congolese wars in between 1996 and 2003. 

"Most of these planes were bought during the war by the rebel groups in the east of the country, while DRCongo was under an international embargo, which included planes," said Stavros Papaioannou, president of Hewa Bora Airlines, one of the rare reliable airlines in DRC. 

"After the war, these planes were shoddily reconverted into civil aircraft, without regulation, and without adequate maintenance," he told AFP. 

"Their crews, Russian or Ukrainian, are generally badly paid and regularly accept an excess of freight for extra money. Their reserves of fuel are often insufficient, to provide more space for freight," he said. 

In addition there is a long list of other violations of the law including the corruption of government officials to register faulty aircraft. 

"There a number of planes which do not meet the regulations but which get authorisations to fly anyway. The companies buy them (authorisations)" an airport technical officer, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP. 

Papaioannou condemned these practices and regretted the poor image they cast over the entire Congolese aviation fleet, which has been collectively banned from a number of international airports including those in the United States and Britain. 

"Each crash raises our insurance premiums. We have to get our planes licensed in other countries to avoid this penalty," said Papaioannou. 

Another problem is the condition of the runways which are often badly marked with few airports having guidance systems for the pilots of landing planes which is especially dangerous in bad weather, according to a pilot working in the central city of Kasai. 

Friday's crash was the fourth in less than a week involving commercial airlines in DR Congo. 

On September 5 another Antonov AN-26 belonging to the private Galaxie company struck a tree as it was landing at Isiro, in the east of the vast country killing all 11 people aboard. 

The following day, a Beechcraft Baron 58 of the Flying Air Service company crashed on landing at Goma airport in the eastern DRC after a test flight with the French pilot later dying from his injuries. 

On Thursday, three people were slightly injured in the forced landing of an aircraft belonging to Transport de Message du Kivu at Murandi airport, also in eastern DRC. 

There have been six crashes by commerical airlines in DRCongo since the beginning of the year with a total of 63 people killed. 

The worst was on May 25 when all 26 people on board an Antonov 12 were killed when the aircraft, operated by Victoria Air, crashed soon after takeoff from the eastern city of Goma on May 25.


----------



## hkskyline

*Congo grounds 33 local airlines for safety violations after rash of plane accidents *
9 September 2005

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Congo's government on Friday pulled operating licenses from dozens of the central African nation's airlines, grounding their planes after a spate of air accidents. 

Transport Minister Eva Mwakasa did not name the 33 prohibited airlines, telling reporters only that the companies were all registered in Congo. 

Some of the airlines flew cargo planes fitted with plastic chairs in the hold for passengers traveling around a country the size of Western Europe with few passable roads, Mwakasa said. 

Two planes crashed Wednesday and Thursday in the east, Mwakasa said, killing one pilot and leaving numerous passengers injured. On Monday, a Russian-made airplane crashed elsewhere into the forest in eastern Congo, killing seven, including three Russian crew members.


----------



## hkskyline

*Cargo plane makes emergency landing in Kenyan capital, blocking morning flights *
2005/10/01

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - A cargo plane carrying 120 metric tons (132 tons) of flowers and fruits made an emergency landing at Kenya's main international airport when it developed engine problems an hour after takeoff, Kenya Airports Authority said Saturday. 

The Air Atlanta plane, which was destined for the Netherlands from Kenya, developed the problem while still in Kenyan airspace and made an emergency landing at 1:56 a.m. (2256GMT Friday) at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, from where it had taken off, said George Muhoho, the authority's managing director. 

No one was injured, he said. 

All flights to and from the airport have been stopped because the cargo plane is still on one of the runways. Engineers are working to remove it, said a policeman, who did not want to be identified further because his rank did not allow him to talk to the media.


----------



## hkskyline

*IATA urges African airlines to merge to survive *
By David Mageria 

NAIROBI, Oct 4 (Reuters) - African airlines must consolidate and increase efficiency to cope with losses due to high fuel prices and increased competition, the head of the international airlines association IATA said. 

"The African aviation industry is not different from (the) aviation industry in the rest of the world. (It) is going through a very difficult moment," said Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 

State-owned South African Airways [SAA.UL] is the continent's biggest carrier. Other airlines serving the region include Kenya Airways , Air Mauritius and Ethiopian Airlines [ETHA.UL]. 

European carriers British Airways and Air France also have a big presence, usually linking their former colonies with Europe. IATA has forecast airline losses in 2005 of $7.4 billion as soaring fuel costs outstrip measures by airlines to cut costs. 

"We have to increase efficiency, bring down the cost and try to build consolidation in the industry," Bisignani told reporters late on Monday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. 

Bisignani said most of the losses will be recorded in the U.S. while Europe and Asia will show some small profit. 

He said Africa, where IATA represents 39 airlines most of them in sub-Sahara Africa, will show a small loss. 

IATA was working with its members in Africa to increase efficiency in their system and was negotiating with airports to lower their user charges, Bisignani, a former Alitalia CEO said. 

A key measure is helping airlines in Africa to switch from paper tickets to electronic ticketing ahead of the association's targeted deadline of 2007. 

ELECTRONIC TICKETS 

So far Africa has achieved 36 percent usage of electronic ticketing. But the figure is misleading because only airlines in South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe have made progress. 

"The other parts of Africa, we have to really work closely together with our members in order to achieve a level of penetration that will be more satisfactory," he said. 

Experts say Africa's challenge is to improve the image of its aviation industry. Bisignani said IATA was working with its members in Africa and other aviation organisations to rectify the problem through safety training and auditing. 

Safety concerns have led some countries to ban suspect airlines from landing at their airports, with some African airlines included on the list. 

But Bisignani said IATA was not convinced by the process for blacklisting airlines from landing in some European countries. He said the system needed to be transparent with a harmonised international set of standards. 

France and Belgium have announced their blacklists, including a number of African airlines. 

"I think the blacklist, like, how it is conceived now, it is not very efficient," Bisignani said. "It is difficult to evaluate the performance of an airline by just checking one aircraft on the spot ... in an hour." 

TOURISM BOOM 

He said the future of African airlines was bright despite the current difficulties with booming tourism expected to drive the continent's aviation industry growth. 

But he said only airlines which are best managed will reap the benefits. He cited Kenya Airways as an example of an airline that could provide leadership to others in Africa. The Kenyan carrier this year posted the highest profit in its 28-year history of 3.8 billion shillings ($51.6 million), up from 1.3 billion due to cost-cutting and a rise in passengers. 

"It is important that certain countries which have achieved good success can help other airlines around the continent in order to upgrade their system because we want to see an industry in Africa to be profitable and to develop at the same rate as we have experienced in other parts of the world," he said.


----------



## hkskyline

*Morocco ends migrant airlift, set to start new one *

GUELMIM, Morocco, Oct 14 (AFP) - A five-day airlift to repatriate hundreds of west Africans from Morocco in a crackdown on clandestine immigration ended in the north Friday and foreign diplomats headed south to monitor a new one. 

A last chartered flight by Royal Air Maroc took off carrying 102 Malians to Bamako from the airport of Oudja, an official in the district administrator's office said, bringing to more than 1,600 the number of people flown to Senegal and Mali. 

With that, attention has turned to Guelmim, another desert town around 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) away, as often destitute west Africans are brought or flocked here instead, not far from the Moroccan-annexed Western Sahara where convoys of buses dropped expulsees early in the week. 

Oudja, a generally placid town near the northwestern border with Algeria, had served as road transport hub, bureaucratic processing centre and a last stop in Morocco for west Africans who abandoned any dream of escaping poverty and famine somehow to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. 

The ambassadors of Senegal and Gambia came straight to Guelmim from Oudja on Friday, along with a diplomat from Mali, to participate in monitoring the next airlift and dealing with hundreds of their nationals. 

The airlifts are part of the north African kingdom's response to a surge of violence in a permanent human drama of mainly west Africans who make dangerous treks in the hands of costly guides north across the vast Sahara desert, hoping often to get into Spain. 

Senegal's ambassador, Ibou Ibou Nidiaye said before leaving Oudja that 827 of his compatriots had been flown out and he was told 309 people who said they were Senegalese had gathered in Guelmim. 

Morocco has come under fire from human rights bodies, aid organisations and a domestic charity that helps families of clandestine migrants once reports of brutality became tv footage and the security forces had dumped expulsees in desert areas to fend for themselves. 

Ndiaye, however, said that "Morocco made an immense considerable financial and human effort to resolve this affair, which could have had drastic consequences." 

An armed separatist movement that wants self-determination for the Western Sahara, the Polisario Front, said Friday through its new agency and envoy to Madrid, Abdullah Arabi, that Polisario fighters had rescued a group of 25 lost, starving and dehydrated people in an area strewn with landmines. 

A UN mission posted in the territory to monitor a 1992 ceasefire amid years of effort to break a political deadlock has also sent troops seeking Africans last known to be at large there after being dumped off buses. "They've taken a lot of risks crossing the minefields," Arabi said. 

The Moroccan government has said in a statement that "none of the hundreds of clandestine people staying illegally in Morocco was abandoned in the desert or left to their fates at the gates of the kingdom." 

Initially in Morocco full of hope, some take to small boats, dozens drown each year and in recent months at least 14 people have died violently while an unknown number has been wounded in mass bids to take the razor-wire fences surrounding two Spanish enclaves on the Moroccan coast by storm. 

This constant influx has come to a head. 

On October 7, Moroccan police shot dead six of around 500 people who launched an assault on Melilla, one of the enclaves. The government defended the killings as legitimate self-defence and Rabat and Madrid simultaneously started summary expulsions of people without papers. 

About 1,000 other former dreamers of a new life south have gathered, one way or another, at Guelmim. Mali's ambassador, Moussa Coulibaly, said 741 of his compatriots were flown home from Oudja by RAM and aboard one plane charted by the International Office for Migration. 

He was expecting 300 more here.


----------



## SE9

*Kenya Airports Authority Profit Soars*

*Kenya Airports Authority Profit Soars*


_Summary of Article_

> In the financial year 2002/2003, KAA made a pre-tax loss of Sh364 million on revenues of Sh2.5 billion.

> KAA's revenues have grown from Sh2.5 billion in 2003 to Sh4 billion in June 2005 and pre-tax profits have improved from Sh40 million to Sh1.2 billion in the same period.

> A marketing campaigning aimed at attracting foreign airlines to use Kenya's three airports have been successful.

> This has seen Nairobi's Airport (JKIA) attract airlines like: Air Plus Comet, Sudan Airways, Pakistan International Airlines, Qatar Airways and Imaatong. Moi International Airport in Mombasa has attracted *11 new airlines* and the Eldoret International Airport has *nine new airlines.*


> The KAA will over the next two years *expand and improve its facilities at JKIA* to handle *9 million passengers annually, as opposed to the current capacity of 2.5 million.*




..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................




*Main Article*


When Mr George Muhoho took over the reins at Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) in 2003, he inherited a weighty mess.

On any given day, travellers who used Kenyan airports - particularly Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) -were exposed to the worst that only a government owned firm would be expected to give its customers.

If it was not the offensive smell and poorly cleaned toilets, the four million travellers that use the airport every year were familiar with the ungainly sight of scores of passengers on transit who, because they could not get proper lounge facilities commonly available in foreign airports, slept on the floor.

To access the many duty free shops - which never seemed to attract enough customers despite squeezing out most of the space that could be used to set up lounge facilities - one literally had to do a hop, step and jump over the sleeping travellers.

In the financial year 2002/2003, KAA made a pre-tax loss of Sh364 million on revenues of Sh2.5 billion.

Though the company held Sh817 million in cash and investments, most of this money was being swallowed in a debt repayment, which had reached Sh431 million.

Most important, the management already knew that the situation at JKIA needed to be sorted out, but the Sh8 billion cost looked too steep.

"What surprised me most when I came here is that they kept on telling me there was no money to fund capital projects, says Mr Muhoho, "Yet when I looked at the numbers, there were all indications that the job could be done."

But to transform the KAA, Mr Muhoho said that the business needed an urgent management shake-up and the work ethic within the organisation needed to change. Within a short time, the top management was changed and infused with talent from the private sector.

"Then we went with the team to a long meeting where we mapped out the strategy for this organisation," says Mr Muhoho.

Though this may sound just like any other humdrum exercise that marinates corporate bureaucracies around the world, at the KAA, corporate planning was a big problem. The previous management, appointed by the Kanu regime, seemed to have ignored all the problems faced by the organisation.

For instance, the KAA was not collecting on time all the money it was owed by customers, and in some cases did not know what it was owed. Revenue contracts were also poorly negotiated and supervised. In one case, KAA was only getting a fraction of the money that it should have been getting from outdoor advertising.

"The first thing we did was to contract Kenya Revenue Authority to collect the various levies for us," says Mr Muhoho.

"This eliminated the need for us to maintain 18 cashiers and the complexity of cash management. We also tightened our contracts," he says, "There were people whose contracts had not been renewed for months. This meant that they were being charged the old rates."

"Basically, we did a lot of house cleaning and plugged all the holes where the airports were losing money," he says.

These changes were happening at the worst time for KAA, when airlines like British Airways and Brittania had suspended flights to Kenya after the US and European governments imposed travel bans on Kenya because of suspected threats from terrorism. Despite this, the results have been impressive.

KAA's revenues have grown from Sh2.5 billion in 2003 to Sh4 billion in June 2005 and pre-tax profits have improved from Sh40 million to Sh1.2 billion in the same period.

"Revenue growth has come from capturing passenger service charge revenue of Sh900 million, additional business from new airlines, more frequencies from existing airlines and growth in concessionaires turnover. Reduced revenue leakages and improved collection and strict cost management through elimination of wastage and due to improved efficiency," says Mr Muhoho.

A marketing campaigning aimed at attracting foreign airlines to use Kenya's three airports have been successful.

This has seen JKIA attract airlines like: Air Plus Comet, Sudan Airways, Pakistan International Airlines, Qatar Airways and Imaatong. Moi International Airport in Mombasa has attracted 11 new airlines and the Eldoret International Airport has nine new airlines.

"Long before the public performance contracts were put in place, we had already passed that bridge and achieved most of the milestones," says Mr Muhoho.

While funding for capital projects could have been a problem in the past, it is not now with the KAA holding Sh2.5 billion in cash.

This has allowed the authority to undertake the modernisation and expansion of the airport at the cost of $100 million (Sh73 million).

KAA will generate $50 million (Sh3.6 billion) to fund the project from its cashflows and then it will borrow $40 million from concessional lenders and banks and the World Bank will provide $10 million.

KAA is now preparing a future where it intends to be a major regional hub player in Africa by both chasing a Federal Aviation Agency Category 1 status that will allow airlines to fly directly to Nairobi from American cities and expanding the capacity of the airport.

According to Mr Muhoho, the KAA will over the next two years expand and improve its facilities at JKIA to handle 9 million passengers annually, as opposed to the current capacity of 2.5 million.


"To address this, we are increasing space at the terminal building from the current 25,662 square metres to 55,222 square metres," says Mr Muhoho.

"Aircraft parking, which is currently constrained, will be increased from 200,000 square metres to over 300,000 square metres, and additional taxiways will be included."


----------



## SE9

*Kenyatta Airport Expansion*











*and...*


----------



## SE9

*Kenyatta Airport - Nairobi, Kenya could have a Second Runway*

_Nairobi, Oct 2005_


The Government is considering building a second runway at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

The announcement comes three days after airline schedules were disrupted for hours last weekend when a plane crash-landed on the runway.

The Government and the Kenya Airports Authority, the aviation regulator, had accepted the proposal, Kenya Airways managing director Titus Naikuni told journalists on Monday.

International Air Transport Association director-general Giovanni Bisignani said air transport was facing hard times with the rising cost of fuel.

"Despite improved efficiency, which resulted in a 3.2-per cent cost reduction and a 4.3- per cent fuel use decrease, the sector is experiencing challenges due to the fuel price increases," Mr Bisignani said.

He said the organisation was focused on improving efficiency and safety among its 265 member-airlines that handle 94 per cent of the global air traffic. Thirty-nine African airlines are members of the association, 32 of them in Africa.

Mr Bisignani said the association's officials were negotiating with governments to shorten routes to reduce transport costs.

They also wanted members to adopt e-ticketing by 2007 to improve efficiency, he said.


The organisation, Mr Bisignani said, was working on harmonising safety standards. "There will be evaluation of safety procedures since spot-checking is inefficient for assessing safety," he said.

He said next year Africa's aviation industry would make a "small loss", while airlines in Europe and Asia would realise a "small profit". He said the organisation's hands were tied from improving airport efficiency in because most air navigation providers were state-owned


----------



## hkskyline

*Airport authority says Nigeria plane gone down-CNN *

LONDON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Nigeria's Federal Airports Authority has confirmed a missing Nigerian airliner carrying 114 people has gone down after take-off from the commercial capital Lagos, CNN television reported on Sunday. 

The station's reporter in Lagos said by telephone: "The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria is confirming that the flight has indeed gone down ... maybe just after take-off from Lagos." 

Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.


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## hkskyline

*South Africa and China on Gulf Air flight plan
Carrier may come to market for cash when its restructuring is completed*
Russell Barling and Neil Gough
22 October 2005
South China Morning Post

Gulf Air will give Cathay Pacific Airways a run for its money on the Johannesburg route from December and its top executive says the Gulf's oldest airline is aiming to enter the China market next year.

Chief executive James Hogan yesterday said the Bahrain-based carrier was in the process of receiving final proposals from rival manufacturers to supply aircraft that would allow it to serve long-haul markets such as China from its Middle Eastern base.

"China is a strategically important region for us. We are currently meeting with the airport authorities and officials with a view to starting services to either Beijing or Shanghai within the next six to eight months," Mr Hogan said. "I am very keen to launch a service next year but all the elements have to add up."

Kay Yew Koh, general manager for Hong Kong and Northeast Asia, said Gulf Air valued both markets equally and that the strategy was to roll out the second service a year after the first.

It will launch flights from Hong Kong to Johannesburg and Dublin - via Bahrain - on December 2 and hopes to capture market share with discount fares of up to half the published rates offered by carriers plying the route.

To Johannesburg, for example, Gulf Air's initial fare will be $4,400 including a night's stay in Bahrain. Cathay, which flies direct in code-share arrangement with South African Airways, will charge $8,470 on December 2, its website shows.

Gulf Air is in the second year of a three-year restructuring programme driven by a pending defection of a major shareholder and a strategy to reposition the airline from a "public utility mentality" to a full commercial enterprise, according to Mr Hogan.

Part of that restructuring involved a new composition for its fleet. Mr Hogan said the airline had narrowed the options for new long-haul aircraft down to Airbus's A330-200, which is listed at an average price of US$158 million, or Boeing's new B787, which costs about US$130 million per unit.

From March, the airline will lose the government of Abu Dhabi as a shareholder, a move that will leave Oman and Bahrain as equal partners.

Mr Hogan said the airline was talking to lenders about funds to complete some of the operational restructuring and for "deposits for aircraft".

He held out the possibility that the carrier would approach the capital markets for cash once oil prices stabilised and its restructuring was complete.

"One of the factors driving higher oil prices is the pressure on refineries. I expect those operations to improve and then there will be a correction," he said. "The key thing over the next two years is generally to restructure the business. The pullout of Abu Dhabi is sure to have an impact.

"After that, it's possible we will approach the markets, either through a private placement or some kind of offering. My owners have the appetite for it."


----------



## hkskyline

*Nigerian airliner crash: black boxes found *

LISSA, Nigeria, Oct 24 (AFP) - Nigerian police have recovered the black box flight recorders of a passenger airliner which crashed just north of Lagos killing all 117 people on board, the most senior officer at the scene said. 

"The boxes were found this morning and handed over to the appropriate authorities," said Police Commissioner Tunji Alapini, whose men were the first to arrive after the plane disintegrated as it fell from the sky during a thunderstorm. 

"There is nothing more to rescue. The destruction is total," he said late on Sunday as he left the crash site at Lissa village near Otta in a cocoa farming area north of Nigeria's commercial capital. 

Already as night fell Sunday, 24 hours after the mystery disaster, the huge hole gouged out by the falling plane was enveloped in the foul stench of dozens of dismembered and rotting corpses. 

Local villagers said that the Boeing 737 jet appeared to have exploded in mid-air as it fought its way northwards through a thunderstorm shortly after nightfall on Saturday. 

Nigerian investigators had no early explanation for the disaster, but the flight data recorders should allow experts to begin piecing together the final minutes of the Bellview Airlines jet. 

The director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Fidelis Onyeriri, said in a televised press briefing that the plane was 24 years old and had had a full technical inspection, which is valid for 18 months of flying, in February 2005. 

Ten hours before it took off on its final journey it had had an additional check, he added. 

"The plane didn't come in radio contact when it should have reached 13,000 feet (3,900 meters), which is the normal procedure. So we were alerted, and as there couldn't be any radio contact the plane was declared presumed missing," he said. 

"When we came to the wreckage site, the aircraft was completely broken into pieces. There could be no survivors," he added. 

Nigeria has a chequered aviation safety record and has seen several crashes in recent years. 

But Bellview -- a private Nigerian-owned airline mainly serving domestic and west African routes -- has never had a serious accident in 12 years and is widely considered one of the more reliable and professionally run firms to operate here.


----------



## Desven

*Plane crash in Nigeria*

117 killed in Nigeria plane crash

LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- All 117 people aboard a passenger jet that crashed shortly after take-off from Lagos are dead, including several high-level Nigerian officials, the government said Sunday.

The identities of the officials were not released, pending notification of relatives. 

"The Federal Government announces with regret the unfortunate air crash of Bellview Airlines ... which resulted in the loss of life of all passengers and crew on board," a government statement released late on Sunday said, according to Reuters news service.

Dismembered and burned body parts, fuselage fragments and engine parts were strewn over an area the size of a football field near the village of Lissa, about 30 km (20 miles) north of Lagos.

"The aircraft has crashed and it is a total loss. We can't even see a whole human body," Reuters reports a senior police official at the scene as saying.

Video from the crash site showed smoldering wreckage scattered over a rocky hillside. 

A Red Cross official at the site said there was a 70 foot (20 meter) crater where the main impact occurred, Reuters said.

There were 111 passengers and six crew members on board, according to Bellview Airlines.

The plane was headed to the Nigerian capital of Abuja when it crashed, officials said. The cause of the crash was being investigated. 

The pilot of Bellview Airlines Flight 210 pilot issued a distress call just before the control tower lost sight of the plane, about three minutes after takeoff, officials said. 

The plane was missing for hours before the wreckage was found shortly after dawn. 

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria scrambled two helicopters to search for the jet. 

Relatives of those on board also chartered a helicopter, and search teams were dispatched.

The twin-engine Boeing 737 left Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos at 7 p.m. (6 p.m. GMT) Saturday as Flight 210 en route to Abuja -- a trip that should have taken about 50 minutes.

Several high-level Nigerian officials were believed to be on board the privately owned jet, the office of President Olusegun Obasanjo told CNN. They were headed to Abuja for a meeting.

Reuters said the plane was believed to be carrying a U.S. consular official and some European passengers as well. 

Bellview is a Nigerian airline popular with expatriates living in the West African nation and has been operating for about 10 years with no record of any incidents.

A storm was passing through Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, about the time the flight left, CNN's Africa Correspondent Jeff Koinange reported. 

There were widespread rains and thunderstorms around the southwestern corner of Nigeria, particularly near Lagos to Ibadan, CNN's meteorologist Mari Ramos said.

The normally bustling airport in Lagos was quiet Sunday with family members of passengers waiting for news of rescue efforts.

President Obasanjo called on the country's people to pray for the passengers and their families, officials said. Obasanjo's office said in a statement that the president was personally overseeing search and rescue operations. 












Source:www.cnn.com


----------



## Skyblade

My condolences go out to those lost. 

Right now all Bellview flights out of Lagos are cancelled but hopefully they'll take to the skies again.


----------



## hkskyline

*Nigeria punishes TV station that found air crash site *

ABUJA, Oct 24 (AFP) - Nigerian authorities banned then re-opened Monday the private television station whose reporters were the first to find the site where an airliner crashed killing all 117 on board. 

Reporters from Lagos-based African Independent Television (AIT) were the first to reveal on Sunday that the Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 had come down a short distance outside Lagos in the village of Lissa, a cocoa-growing area near President Olusegun Obasanjo's farm in Otta. 

Earlier, several Nigerian officials had incorrectly told journalists that the crash site was in Kishi, a remote rural area 400 kilometres (245 miles) further north. AIT's report allowed many reporters travelling to the scene to alter course and head for the true location. 

Later, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) accused Nigerian outlets in general of causing "confusion" in the international media through their reporting and AIT in particular of breaching reporting standards in its filming of dismembered bodies at the crash site. 

"The commission is constrained to order the temporary shut down of the operations of Daar Communications Ltd, operators of AIT National and International and Raypower FM stations, pending further professional assessment of the status of their licences," the statement said. 

AIT and Raypower were off air on Monday, but the commission later released a second statement "sequel to the interventions of many well-meaning Nigerians" permitting the outlets to recommence broadcasting but warning "stations to be fully aware of their social responsibilities. 

Broadcasting resumed at around 6:00 pm (1700GMT) after an 18 hour gap. 

In a statement Monday, the Media Rights Agenda (MRA), a media rights body, condemned the temporary closure, saying that the punished stations were not given a fair hearing as stipulated in the NBC regulation. 

"It is not clear what procedure the NBC followed in deciding to shut down the radio and television station. The sanctions procedure in the Commission's guideline book...requires that an erring station should first be served with a notice and given a hearing before the application of sanctions," the MRA said. 

The chairman of the network, Raymond Dokpesi, said: "The NBC is punishing Daar Communications for disclosing the site of the Bellview accident." 

Since Nigeria's return to civilian rule in 1999 journalists and citizens have theoretically enjoyed freedom of expression, and a lively and combative private media sector has developed. 

Authorities do, however, often employ heavy handed tactics to silence particular outlets or punish their owners.


----------



## hkskyline

*Nigeria to plug 'safety loopholes' after air crash *

LAGOS, Oct 25 (AFP) - Nigeria is to review the safety of the ageing fleet of passenger jets operated by its small private airlines following a crash which killed 117 people, President Olusegun Obasanjo said Tuesday. 

An investigation has been launched to find out why a Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 plunged to the ground and disintegrated shortly after taking off from Lagos on Saturday, but the president said that checks must also be carried out on the maintenance standard of other planes. 

"I have already ordered a full and thorough investigation into the cause of the air crash with a view to ensuring that this sort of calamity does not repeat itself," Obasanjo said, in a televised address to the nation. 

"In addition, I have directed the aviation ministry to ensure strict compliance with maintenance and operations requirements and standards for all aircraft in order to plug loopholes and ensure passenger safety," he said. 

Domestic routes between Nigeria's larger cities are connected by a network of passenger flights run by almost a dozen private airlines operating second hand jets, mostly Boeing 727 and 737 airliners. 

Most of the airlines are not licensed to fly internationally but some, including Bellview and the country's new British-owned flag-carrier Virgin Nigeria, serve west African capitals and fly to London. Several major international airlines operate flights to Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. 

The Nigerian aviation industry has a bad safety record and minor accidents are relatively common. In July alone three airliners were damaged on landing on Lagos' poorly surfaced runway while an Air France jet ploughed into a herd of cows as it touched down in Port Harcourt. 

In May 2002 a Nigerian passenger jet crashed into a crowded suburb shortly after taking off from Kano airport in the north of the country, killing 115 on board and scores more on the ground.


----------



## hkskyline

*Egypt to present report on Flash air crash next week *

CAIRO, Oct 26 (AFP) - Egyptian authorities will next week release a draft final report into the January 2004 crash of a Flash Airlines plane in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the official MENA news agency reported Wednesday. 

"The 1,000-page draft contains full information about the aircraft, crew and the performance of instruments before and during the crash," said the head of the Egyptian crash investigation committee, Shaqir Qalada, quoted by MENA. 

The crash off the coast of the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh three minutes after take-off killed 148 people, including 134 French nationals. 

A definitive report will be published after a 60-day period for France and the United States where the doomed Boeing 737 was manufactured to make their comments on the findings, according to Qalada. 

He said the Egyptian investigation had determined a series of incidents "which happened at the same time and led to crash of the aircraft", without giving further details. 

An initial report published by Egyptian authorities in November 2004 detailed the flight's final moments before the plane crashed into the sea but it remains unclear whether machine or human error was to blame. 

The flight was chartered by Egypt's Flash Airlines company which has since gone bankrupt.


----------



## hkskyline

*Somali warlords threaten to shoot down planes in airport row *

MOGADISHU, Oct 28 (AFP) - Warlords in control of the lawless Somali capital threatened Friday to shoot down planes that obey a new directive from the war-shattered nation's transitional government not to use airports they run. 

Mogadishu warlord Musa Sudi Yalahow, who serves as trade minister in the splintered administration, said the bar on flights into the airstrips was an illegal attempt by embattled President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed to undermine his foes. 

"This is aimed at undermining Mogadishu," he told AFP. "Any plane which diverts its flight because of this announcement will be punished. Our anti-aircraft weapons will not be silent and any plane that undermines it will be downed." 

"This is not to attack anybody, but is aimed at protecting the value of the Somali capital and to protect the interests of the people," said Yalahow, who said he spoke on behalf of other Mogadishu-based warlords opposed to Yusuf. 

He did not explain how they would shoot down aircraft which avoided the territory they controlled. 

The threat came after Yusuf's faction of the government, which is based in Jowhar about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of the capital for security reasons, announced it would no longer allow flights into two warlord-controlled airports. 

The ban affects Mogadishu's Daynile airport on the outskirts of the capital and the El-Ahmed airport in Merka about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south and takes effect November 1, officials said. 

The transport ministry, under control of Yusuf's allies, said it had taken the move as part of efforts to boost the penniless government's near non-existent tax base as revenue from the airstrips in question currently goes to warlords. 

"The ministry of transport has ordered flights not to land at the Daynile and El-Ahmed airports," it said in a statement released in Jowhar and sent to authorities in neighboring countries. 

"Instead, flights will be diverted to other airstrips at which the government is able to collect tax," it said. 

An official in Jowhar said the notice had been sent to civil aviation authorities in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen and United Arab Emirates from where most flights into Daynile and El-Ahmed depart. 

The official said the five other nations had agreed to enforce the ban as part of a broader package of measures aimed at strengthening the fledgling government. 

Somalia has been without a functioning central administration since the 1991 ousting of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre. 

Yusuf's government is the latest in more than a dozen attempts to restore stability to the nation but a dispute over the seat of the administration has left it virtually powerless.


----------



## hkskyline

*After crash, Nigeria bans air ticket transfer, racketeering *

LAGOS, Oct 31 (AFP) - The Nigerian government on Monday banned the transfer of airline tickets and all forms of racketeering at the nation's airports in the aftermath of this month's plane crash in which all 117 people on board were killed. 

"We will no longer tolerate touting of air tickets at the airports or allow the use of tickets that do not bear passengers' names," the director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Fidelis Onyeyiri, told state-run NTA television. 

"Some touts buy tickets in advance and create unnecessary scarcity in order to make profit. This will no longer be allowed. A lot of anomalies were discovered after the latest incident (crash). Many people did not travel with tickets bearing their names," Onyeyiri said. 

These anomalies make it difficult for accident victims' families to lodge insurance claims, he noted. 

Meanwhile, the NTA reported that excavation work began Monday on the fuselage of the Abuja-bound commercial plane that crashed in the village of Lisa on the northern outskirts of Lagos on October 22. 

Members of the public, including journalists, are being barred from the exercise to dig out the main body of the Bellview 737 jet which was thought to still hold the black box and the bodies of some of the victims. 

The work is being supervised by a team of US accident investigators, the television said. 

President Olusegun Obasanjo said in Abuja on Sunday that the government would erect a remembrance garden at the site of the crash "with the names of all the victims of the unfortunate accident inscribed, indelibly inscribed. Lest we should forget." 

The president attended a memorial service in Lisa last Thursday.


----------



## hkskyline

*Nigerian plane skids off flooded runway *

LAGOS, Nov 1 (AFP) - A Nigerian passenger plane was damaged as it skidded off a waterlogged runway on landing at Lagos airport Tuesday, an aviation offical said, reviving safety fears about 10 days after a deadly crash. 

"At about 11:00 am (1000 GMT) today, an Associated Airlines plane coming from Benin City ran into bad weather on arriving in Lagos. It landed on the flooded tarmac and skidded, damaging its front nose tyre," said Sam Adurogboye, a spokesman of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). 

"All the 17 people on board the plane are safe," he told AFP, adding that after "the collapse of the wheel, it got stuck on the tarmac and blocked it. The tarmac was blocked for about an hour and 25 minutes before it was cleared to allow for the free flow of traffic." 

Adurogboye said an investigation had been launched into the cause of the crash, but he could not confirm a television news report that the pilot had ignored an order from air traffic control not to land because of the water on the runway. 

The Shorts SD-3-60 passenger turboprop which was damaged can carry 19 passengers and is 18 years old, Adurogboye said. 

The incident was one of a series involving Nigerian planes in recent months. 

On October 22 a Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 passenger jet bound for Abuja crashed in the village of Lissa, just north of Lagos, killing all 117 passengers and crew on board. 

Aviation experts were Tuesday still investigating the scene of that crash.


----------



## hkskyline

*Morocco signs deal with Boeing to buy five planes *

RABAT, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Moroccan flag carrier Royal Air Maroc (RAM) said on Thursday it had signed a deal with Boeing to purchase five long-haul Dreamliner aircaft for $650 million. 

"The contract on buying the five planes was signed on Wednesday in Casablanca. The first plane is due to be delivered in October 2008," the airline said in a statement. 

RAM will use the five aircraft for its long-haul flights to Canada and the United States. 

The airline selected Boeing in a tender it launched in June to buy the planes as part of drive to renovate its Boeing-dominated fleet of 32. RAM said the Dreamliner jets will help it save on fuel costs.


----------



## mic of Orion

great stuff,


----------



## SE9

*Plans for Second Runway at Nairobi put before Parliament*

_2nd November 2005_


_Story by NATION Team /Parliament
Publication Date: 11/2/2005_


*The Government plans to build an alternative runway at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to cope with emergencies.*

Transport assistant minister Andrew Ligale said the project was suggested after an accident on October 1 in which a cargo plane crashed-landed, forcing the Kenya Airports Authority to suspend the use of the sole runway for eight hours.

He denied claims by Mr Jimmy Angwenyi (Kitutu Chache, Ford People) that the airport was closed for 24 hours to local and international flights.

Asked why the authority needed eight hours to clear the runway, Mr Ligale said the plane was loaded with 110 tonnes of fresh produce bound for Amsterdam.

Mr Angwenyi accused the assistant minister of misleading the House, saying he was on a trip to South Africa on the day of the accident and his flight to Nairobi was delayed for 48 hours.

*"Can the minister tell us why it had to take eight hours just to clear the runway after the cargo plane crash-landed at the end of the runway?"* Mr Angwenyi asked.

Mr Davies Nakitare (Saboti, Narc) asked the assistant minister to explain if the delay was caused by inefficiency on the part of the KAA.

*"JKIA is the busiest airport in Africa. What plans are there to cater for such emergencies?" he asked.*

Mr Ligale denied claims that the authority was inefficient and blamed the delay on the heavy cargo that had to be offloaded.

Mr Angwenyi said he was surprised to watch a television news bulletin showing airport workers physically clearing the huge aircraft from the runaway.

"The Government is not serious about JKIA. Can we be told what was the real cause of the long delay in clearing the cargo plane?" he asked.

Meanwhile, Finance minister David Mwiraria said 145 parastatals had been privatised in the past decade.

But he was unable to tell Mr Mwandawiro Mghanga (Wundanyi, Ford People), how man employees had been retrenched or the total amount of funds raised from the bidders.

Mr Mwiraria said the list was long and that a number of the affected corporations such as Kenya Cashewnuts had been closed.

The minister singled out Kenya Airways as the most successful of the privatised parastatals that had not only made huge profits, but had increased the number of employees over the years.

Mr John Sambu (Mosop, Kanu) demanded a breakdown of the number of employees retrenched and the total revenue collected by the Treasury after selling the corporations.

"Is he in order to say that I was in government at that time therefore I should know the answer?" he asked.

Reported by Owino Opondo and Odhiambo Orlale


----------



## hkskyline

*France lifts flight ban on Cameroon Airlines *

PARIS, Nov 4 (AFP) - French civil aviation authorities on Friday lifted a flight ban on Cameroon Airlines (Camair), imposed in mid-September for safety reasons.

"We consider that they have carried out the required audit, which has allowed us to remove them from the list of banned companies," said a spokeswoman for the national aviation authority, the DGAC.

The DGAC banned Camair flights on September 16 after tests of its aircraft revealed a number of safety shortcomings -- notably poor tyre maintenance, badly secured loading areas, and outdated navigation documentation.

The French authority had asked Camair for an audit of its operating conditions by September 15, but the company had failed to comply.

Camair passed an agreement with France following the ban which has allowed it to continue flights to the country using chartered aircraft from other airlines.


----------



## SE9

*First Choice returns to Mombasa, Kenya*

*Flights were suspended after a terrorist attack in 2002*












Tourism received a major boost yesterday when a charter flight arrived at Moi International Airport, Mombasa, with 258 visitors.

The charter company, First Choice Airways of the UK, resumed its flights to the coastal town after suspending them for the past five years following the terrorist bomb attack on Paradise Hotel, Kikambala, in 2002. 

Maasai traditional dancers welcome 258 tourists at Moi International Airport, Mombasa, yesterday. The visitors had arrived on board a First Choice Airways flight from the United Kingdom.
Photo/Jack Owuor
The firm's Kenya area manager, Mr Jon Hilton, said Kenya's tourism attractions were extremely popular in Europe, with more of his company's partners expressing the desire to fly in their clients.

"We are extremely happy with the resumption of our flights to Kenya after the five years of absence," he said. "This shows that Kenya is a top tourist destination, and it is very popular in Europe at the moment."

Mr Hilton said his company had invested about Sh60 million in marketing four leading tourism destinations across the world, including Kenya. 

"First Choice has set aside £0.5 million for marketing purposes in Europe of our main destinations, including India, Mexico, the Maldives and Kenya. "

"We have already started seeing signs from our partners that more tourists will be coming to Kenya this year," he said.

Mr Hilton said building a dual carriageway from the airport to the Mtwapa creek on the North Coast would improve the infrastructure and attract more tourism investors. 

"The rehabilitation of roads in Mombasa will go a long way to attract more European investors to the local economy, and this will tremendously contribute towards rebuilding confidence of many players in the tourism industry," he said. 

Tourism minister Morris Dzoro braved the chilly early morning weather to welcome the visitors amid chants and ululations from Maasai warriors and other leading tourism interested parties.

The minister treated the visitors to palm juice, while traditional dancers entertained them. 

Leading interested parties who accompanied the minister, included Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers Coast chairman Mohammed Hersi, Kenya Association of Tour Operators vice-chairman Michael Muriithi and the chairman of the Hotels and Restaurants Authority, Mr Zul Harunani. 

Mr Dzoro said the country was committed to diversifying its tourism by moving into new areas such as eco and cultural tourism which, he noted, were not yet exploited.

"Besides our efforts towards developing our roads infrastructure, we are committed to exploring new tourism attractions in the country such as historical tourism," he said. 

"These new attractions will give impetus to existing traditional attractions such as beaches and wildlife."

Somak Safaris who are handling the tourists’ holiday, said there will be two charter flights every fortnight from December 21.

The operations director, Mr Joash Olum, said tourism was recovering, and urged the Government to step up marketing to maintain the momentum. 

"The industry is picking up quite well, and we urge the Government to keep its promise and ensure that the state of the infrastructural facilities is always maintained at high standards," he said.


----------



## hkskyline

*Egypt French jet crash report clears pilot *

CAIRO, Nov 6 (AFP) - A preliminary report into the January 2004 crash of a Flash Airlines plane into the sea near the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh exonerates the pilot of any error, an Egyptian official told AFP Sunday. 

"The (draft) report was submitted to the French and American sides for their remarks. A final report will be published two months from now," said the head of the Egyptian crash investigation committee, Shaqir Qalada. 

While he would not detail the probe's findings, he said that "any wrongdoing by the pilot has been discarded." 

The crash of the doomed US-made Boeing 737 off the coast of the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh three minutes after take-off killed 148 people, including 134 French nationals. 

An initial report published by Egyptian authorities in November 2004 detailed the flight's final moments before the plane crashed into the sea but was unclear whether machine or human error was to blame. 

The flight was chartered by Egypt's Flash Airlines company which has since gone bankrupt.


----------



## hkskyline

*Lagos airport closure leaves thousands stranded *

LAGOS, Nov 6 (AFP) - The closure of Lagos international airport for runway repairs on Sunday left thousands of passengers in Nigeria's economic capital stranded. 

"The airport is closed since 7:00 am (0600 GMT) and should reopen at 4:00 pm (1500 GMT), an official from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) told AFP. 

Repairs to the runway lighting and tarmac were being carried out, the official said. 

"Thousands of passengers are stranded as no plane can land or take off. The other runway is on repair for a long time and cannot be used." 

The closure comes two weeks after a Bellview Boeing 737 crashed north of Lagos soon after take-off, killing 117 people. 

On its Internet site ( www.ba.com ), British Airways warned passengers: "Due to runway problems at Lagos airport there is some disruption to our schedule." 

Those with non-urgent travel needs were asked to contact the airline. 

Flights had been rearranged "in agreement with the Nigerian authorities", an official from another international airline in Lagos said. 

Schedules had already been altered to allow maintenance work overnight Friday but then more substantial work was undertaken, the official added. 

Murtala Mohammed airport has relied on a single runway for domestic and international flights for over a year as the second runway has long been closed for maintenance. 

Most international airlines fly to Lagos, as well as the federal capital Abuja and Port Harcourt in the south, the centre of the country's oil industry. 

But the west African state has been plagued by a series of catastrophic air disasters, including a plane crash at the northern airport of Kano which killed 149 in May 2002. 

On July 6 this year, an Air France Airbus A330 hit a cow as it landed in Port Harcourt, after a herd strayed onto the runway. 

On September 5, the head of Nigerian airline Virgin Nigeria called on the authorities to improve air travel security, capacity and services.


----------



## hkskyline

*Lagos airport reopens after repairs of runway *

LAGOS, Nov 7 (AFP) - Nigerian aviation authorities have reopened the Lagos airport after carrying out some repair works at the runway, officials said Monday. 

Thousands of local and foreign travellers were stranded at the weekend following the closure of the runaway for several hours to enable authorities to fix the faulty runway. 

"We have resumed normal flight operations. Planes are now landing and taking off from the airport," a spokeswoman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria told AFP. 

She said the temporary closure was to ensure safety of both local and foreign travellers in the Nigerian airspace, which has suffered some mishaps in recent weeks. 

A Nigerian passenger plane was damaged as it skidded off a waterlogged runway on landing at Lagos airport on Tuesday, barely two weeks after after a Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 passenger jet bound for Abuja crashed in the village of Lisa, north of Lagos, killing all 117 passengers and crew on board.


----------



## hkskyline

*Another air mishap averted in Nigeria *

LAGOS, Nov 8 (AFP) - Another air mishap was averted in Nigeria as a private commercial plane developed engine problem on take-off from the country's capital Abuja, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday. 

"It was a minor incident involving our aircraft. There was a bird strike as the plane attempted to take off," a spokeswoman for AeroContractors airline told AFP. 

She said a bird entered one of the plane's engine compartments, forcing the pilot to abort the Lagos-bound flight on Monday. 

"We cancelled the flight because of the safety of our passengers. No-one was hurt and we inspected the aircraft to ensure nothing was damaged," she said. 

She said more than 100 passengers were on board. 

The Nigerian aviation industry has a bad safety record and minor accidents are relatively common. 

Last Tuesday, a passenger plane was damaged as it skidded off a waterlogged runway on landing at Lagos airport. 

On October 22, a Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 passenger jet bound for Abuja crashed in the village of Lisa, north of Lagos, killing all 117 passengers and crew on board. 

In July alone three airliners were damaged on landing on the poorly surfaced runway at Lagos while an Air France jet ploughed into a herd of cows as it touched down in southern oil city of Port Harcourt.


----------



## hkskyline

*Moroccan airline says to add 40 aircraft by 2012 *

CASABLANCA, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Royal Air Maroc (RAM) will double its fleet to 80 aircraft by 2012, its chairman and CEO Mohamed Berrada said late on Tuesday at a conference organised by the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Morocco. 

"Our strategy for 2006-2012 aims at turning RAM into a group that will be a vehicle of growth for Morocco," he said. 

Berrada, a former finance minister, said RAM would "expand its fleet from 40 currently to 80 planes by 2012", but did not say whether the jets would be bought or leased, nor whether Boeing or Airbus would be the supplier. 

RAM currently operates a Boeing-dominated fleet. 

Berrada said RAM's passenger traffic rose 20 percent to about 4.5 million this year to the end of October, but he said he sees RAM future in diversifying its operations at home and expanding its presence in Africa and elsewhere. 

RAM already owns a maintenance business, a training academy and a call centre, as well as hotels in Morocco. 

Berrada said diversifying business would cushion RAM against cyclical swings in travel activity, which is sensitive to factors like terrorism or diseases such as bird flu. 

Berrada also said RAM plans to expand its presence within Africa by setting up more joint-venture airlines, citing Cameroon as a possibility. RAM has a majority stake in Air Senegal International. 

He said RAM passenger traffic in Africa grew by 30 percent in 2004 and more than 70 percent so far this year and he expected the steady growth to stay at around 70 percent in the two following years. 

RAM plans to invest about 2 billion dirhams ($219 million) a year for the next six years, having invested around 7 billion in the 2001-2005 period, he added. 

He forecast RAM group revenues would be 12 billion dirhams this year, rising to 25 billion in 2012.


----------



## hkskyline

*S.African Airways says improves workers terms *

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 9 (Reuters) - South African Airways (SAA) has raised workers' allowances by up to 19 percent and extend employment for pilots by increasing the retirement age from 60 to 63 years in a bid to mend relations with staff following a crippling strike early this year.

But Chief Executive Officer Khaya Ngqula said on Wednesday the 35 million rand ($5.18 million) package would not have a negative impact on efforts by Africa's largest airline to save 1.6 billion rand on wages and other costs over 18 months.

"It's not very significant at all in terms of the capital, but for our people it's a lot of money. We are trying to give incentives to our people, the savings that we have spoken about will achieved," Ngqula said in response to a question.

Workers at the state-owned airline were on strike for nearly a week in July to demand higher salaries, improved benefits and working conditions. SAA declined to give figures but economists estimated the flag carrier lost about 25 million rand per day.

The strike was resolved after both sides agreed on a 5 percent increase on pensionable salaries, medical aid and housing allowances backdated to April 1, 2005.

Under the new package, cabin crew on international routes will get a daily allowance of $107 from $90. Daily allowances for cabin staff on domestic routes have been raised to 150 rand from 135 rand. Allowances were last reviewed five years ago.

Ngqula said SAA would next year move away from annual wage negotiations in favour of multi-year agreements to ensure the stability needed for the airline's turnaround.

He acknowledged that labour relations at the airline had been deplorable and blamed the situation on management's focus with profitability, following a pretax loss of 8.7 billion rand in fiscal 2003/04.

*APPEASE PILOTS*

It reported an operating profit of 935 million rand in fiscal 2004/05.

"Profitability cannot be sustainable if our workers are not happy. That is the challenge we have responded to and we know that efficiency and productivity will increase," said Ngqula.

SAA moved to appease pilots who have previously threatened to strike, extending their retirement age to 63 from 60 years and appointing a former pilot to oversee their operations.

Ngqula said SAA was also considering setting up a low cost airline in response to stiff competition from budget carriers, who have grabbed 25 percent of the domestic market share.

Budget airlines have ignited an airfare war, with tickets to some destinations costing less than what is charged by buses.

"We have to come up with an appropriate response ... to save jobs and the airline," said Ngqula.

He said SAA did not feel threatened by Virgin Nigeria entering the South African market next month.

SAA's strategy is focused on establishing a dominant position on the continent, its major source of revenue, and tapping the South American market.

"We are ready. What we will not be getting into is a price war. We are quite comfortable that we will be able to hold our ground," said Ngqula.

The airline is considering buying Airbus's new A380 superjumbo aircraft. But there are concerns that it would not be fully utilised and SAA is also looking at products from Boeing as an alternative, he said.

"Our board has looked at the issue. We are viable enough to buy one if we need to. We are very cautious. It is a huge investment," said Ngqula.


----------



## hkskyline

*Nigerian air crash: site probe ends without answers *

LAGOS, Nov 13 (AFP) - Nigerian and US air accident investigators ended their inspection of the site of an airliner disaster on Sunday but still have no idea why the plane crashed and killed all 117 people on board, an official said. 

Recovery teams have yet to find the flight's data recorders, three weeks after Bellview Airlines flight 210 from Lagos to Abuja lost contact with air traffic controllers and plunged into a cocoa grove minutes after take-off. 

"We couldn't find the black box. Nothing has been found which indicates the cause of the crash," Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesman for the Nigerian federal government's National Emergency Management Agency, told AFP. 

"The US experts will continue to work with the little, little part of the aircraft that we found," he said, referring to a team of American investigators from both the US government and the manufacturers of the ill-fated Boeing 737. 

Asked to comment on Nigerian press reports that local experts were beginning to take seriously the idea that the jet was brought down by a bomb attack or sabotage, Farinloye said simply: "Nothing is ruled out." 

On October 21 the crowded passenger airliner took off on a scheduled domestic flight between Lagos and Nigeria's capital Abuja in a powerful electric storm. Air traffic control lost contact three minutes later. 

Almost 24 hours afterwards, Nigerian television journalists found the wreckage of the 24-year-old two engined aircraft on the outskirts of the farming village of Lissa a short drive north of Lagos. 

Wreckage and dismembered corpses were spread over a wide area and in some cases buried deep in the ground by the force of the impact. Witnesses said that the jet appeared to have exploded in mid-air prior to plunging to earth. 

More than 900 people have died in Nigeria over the past 12 years in more than 30 aviation accidents. 

Since last month's fatal crash one plane has been damaged while landing on Lagos's badly maintained runway and another has aborted its take-off from Abuja after sucking a bird into its jet engine. 

International airlines have threatened to cancel their lucrative Lagos flights unless the government improves safety at Lagos, where only one runway is serviceable and where ground radar is turned off at weekends.


----------



## SE9

*Qatar Airways Maiden Flight to Nairobi, Kenya Today*

*Kenyan born manager leads new crew to Kenyan skies *



















When it comes to making manoeuvres for business in the local airline industry, Fatma El-Maawy probably knows all the tricks. It explains why she has taken her latest job as the area manager of Qatar Airlines – the newest entry to Kenya's crowded skies – in her stride.

"I know that it is already big, being the only five-star airline that flies to Africa, but I will make sure that it offers jobs to Kenyans and make it the preferred carrier locally," she says.

Not that she will be cruising against any mild corporate turbulence. Besides taking charge of the airline's entire operations in the country, Fatma is expected to see to it that Qatar's flag-carrier delivers an attractive travel package and steer it to growth.

But experience, management skills and pride are clearly on her side. She cut her teeth at Kenya Airways, where she was recruited as a management trainee in 1985.

"We were the first lot of management trainees and that was when the airline wanted to grow and decided to get graduates to help improve its workforce," recalls Fatma.

It was while at the national flag-carrier that her creativity and ambition became evident. She was appointed the coordinator of the newly launched Hajj package, targeting Muslims going for the annual pilgrimage.

"When I joined, Muslims going for Hajj in Mecca used every other airline but Kenya Airways, and so I started attracting travellers to the airline. Being a Muslim myself helped a lot," she said.

Fatma also takes pride in introducing KQ's first holiday package to promote domestic tourism.

"I always wanted to be the best I could be and that included my place of work. I wanted to make it a place I would be proud to be associated with and that saw me again introduce the Msafiri Club (for regular flyers)," Fatma says.

Just like her other projects, it remains a success to this day. Her efforts did not go unnoticed. She was given the responsibility of handling the Middle East route. But 11 years later, the airline asked all employees to reapply for their positions. Fatma was not offered her job back, like many others, and she decided to move on.

But luck was on her side. Four weeks later, a job with Emirates Airlines came knocking.

"Although I never got the position I was while at Kenya Airways, I took it up. It is good once in a while to take a step back and reassess where one wants to go," recalls Fatma.

The entry of Emirates to Kenya meant stiff competition against Kenya Airways, her former employer.

"I was handling Mombasa and Nairobi routes. The competition was high, but after a while, we brought up sales by 10 per cent and started eyeing Arusha where I got several agents before I went to Dar es Salaam and Entebbe. Everywhere I went, the airline got new routes," says Fatma. 

Emirates expanded to Zambia, Lagos and Congo. Fatma was appointed sales manager in charge of the Indian Ocean Islands, West and Central Africa – overseeing operations from Arusha.

But since her family was in Kenya, she would fly to work in the morning and back home in the evening for a full year, something she says took a toll on her and her family.

"It was really good but I did not have time to be with my family. The strain was really big but we managed to pull through," she says.

After nine-and-a-half years, she decided to take a break from the airline industry. She joined her husband at the family business, Auto Village, a car repair shop. 

But two months later, another airline job surfaced. 

"At Emirates, I had reached the ceiling and I felt that it was time to move on. When Qatar Airlines had an opening, I felt there was room for growth," she added.

Born in Mombasa to a family of eight, the mother of three says that her upbringing and growing in a large family initiated her into the competitive spirit. Even when she was young, she never let anyone to underrate her. 

Her childhood dream to become a doctor was shattered when she failed in physics. Although her high school grades were good enough for admission to the faculty of law at the University of Nairobi, she missed the deadline for registration in the early 1980s. 

Eventually, she settled for a degree in economics and Arabic. After college in 1984, she got a job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she worked for one year before joining the airline industry.


----------



## hkskyline

*Cape Verde has no plans to privatize national airline TACV: president *

LISBON, Nov 19 (AFP) - Cape Verde has no plans to privatize its flag carrier TACV, the president of the west African island nation said Saturday in an interview published in Portugal.

"The privatization process is practically complete. There is talk about the air carrier but TACV is strategic to Cape Verde and we are not going to privatize it for now, despite the pressures to do so," President Jose Maria Nves told weekly newspaper Expresso.

TACV, founded in 1955, is detained entirely by the government of Cape Verde and has about 750 employees.

The airline has played a key role in the development of the tourism industry in the former Portuguese colony, a key motor of economic growth since the early 1990s.

TACV transported some 560,000 passengers last year, 345,000 domestically and 215,000 internationally.

It has a fleet of three ATR 42 turboprops and two Boeing 757-200-ER jets which cover destinations in Europe, Africa as well as North and South America.

Cape Verde gained independence from Portugal in 1975 and began privatizing its economy in the 1980s.

It has sold off banks, an insurance company, the electricity company, the port, and the main foodstuff marketing company.

The number of visitors to the archipelago, located some 500 kilometres (300 miles) off the coast of Senegal, has increased seven-fold over the last decade to more than 180,000 a year.


----------



## hkskyline

*Nigerian airlines announce 20 percent hike in fares *

LAGOS, April 6, 2006 (AFP) - Airline operators have announced a 20 percent hike in fares on the domestic routes because of rising cost of aviation fuel and other operational charges, officials said Thursday. 

The hike, which would take effect from Monday, was announced in a statement by the Airlines Operators of Nigeria in Lagos. 

"From next week, an hour flight will cost 12,000 naira (85 dollars, 69 euros) as against the current fare of 10,000 naira," it said, adding that the increase was necessitated by rising cost of aviation fuel, high administrative cost and a new five percent passenger service charge. 

The association said the price adjustment was "inevitable" if airline operators were to "stay afloat". 

It said the past weeks have seen airlines grappling with shortages of aviation fuel despite an increase to 72 naira from 61 per litre. 

"The situation is such that we are finding it extremely hard to get the product to buy despite the increase in price," a spokesman for private airline Chanchangi, told AFP. 

He appealed to air travellers to bear with the operators because "it is a situation we have no control over."


----------



## hkskyline

*Report: Passengers shun troubled Zimbabwe airline *
7 April 2006

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - The loss-making state airline, Air Zimbabwe, carried just 230,000 passengers last year, compared to more than a million in 1999, the official media reported Friday. 

Acting chief executive Capt. Oscar Madombwe blamed the decline on negative publicity on political and economic turmoil in the country and a perception of safety concerns among both local and foreign travelers, along with shortages of hard currency, new equipment and gasoline, the state Herald newspaper said. 

Madombwe was addressing a panel of lawmakers in Harare on Thursday. 

He said some of the airline's planes were nearly 30 years old and passengers mistrusted its newest acquisitions, two small short haul Chinese MA60 aircraft used on domestic routes since last year, preferring what he called Western-manufactured planes. 

Madombwe said acute shortages in aviation fuel meant some of its international flights, including regular services to London, were forced to take on fuel in neighboring countries, leading to delays. 

Some Western governments issued adverse travel advisories to their nationals on Zimbabwe, the airline chief told the lawmakers. 

"There are travel warnings in which travelers are told: 'Go to Zimbabwe at your own risk and maybe you will not come out of there alive.' We are going to embark on campaigns to counter the bad publicity," the Herald quoted him saying. 

In November, the airline ran out of jet gasoline and grounded all its services for a day as Zimbabwe's worst economic crisis since independence in 1980 deepened. 

It was the first time the airline's planes were brought to a complete standstill by fuel shortages. Then-chief executive Tendai Mahachi and financial director Tendai Mujuru were fired for their handling of fuel shortages. 

Madombwe assured the lawmakers new arrangements had been made to keep the airline flying but did not elaborate. 

Zimbabwe is suffering shortages of all types of gasoline. The agriculture-based economy went into free fall after President Robert Mugabe ordered the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms in 2000.


----------



## hkskyline

*West Africa sees regional airline as early as 2007 *

BAMAKO, April 8 (Reuters) - West Africa could set up a new regional airline as early as 2007 to replace defunct carrier Air Afrique, the head of the project said. 

Air Afrique, jointly owned by the French government and former French colonies in west and central Africa, collapsed in 2002 under unsustainable debts. 

Gervais Djondo, who heads a company set up last year by regional institutions and private investors to create a new regional airline, said the new outfit would differ from Air Afrique because it would be a private company. 

It would also be more broadly based than Air Afrique, aiming to cover more west African and southern African countries. 

"Being private means being there to make profits -- not to distribute free tickets. That is very important," Djondo told Reuters on the fringes of an African airlines conference late on Friday. 

"We are in the launch phase, recruiting an international firm (of consultants) specialised in airlines to conduct the feasibility studies. We have our route map, and I can say that with things advancing as they are it is not impossible we will have our first flight by 2007," he said. 

He said feasibility studies would determine exactly how much capital investment was needed, but said he expected it to be at least $100 million. 

Djondo heads the company SPCAR, set up last year by West African development banks, private investors and the Central Bank of West African States which is shared by eight mainly francophone countries in the region. 

He was speaking to Reuters at the end of the first African Airlines Forum, based on the annual Cannes Airlines Forum, which ended in Mali's capital Bamako on Friday with a resolution backing the establishment of a new regional carrier. 

On Thursday African Airlines Association Secretary General Christian Folly-Kossi said many airlines on the continent, including some which sprang up after Air Afrique's demise, were simply too small to compete.


----------



## hkskyline

*African airlines too small to compete - industry *

BAMAKO, April 6 (Reuters) - Many African airlines are too small to compete effectively and need to consolidate for the continent's aviation sector to develop, the African Airlines Associations (AFRAA) said on Thursday. 

AFRAA Secretary General Christian Folly Kossi said the demise of multinational airline Air Afrique, Nigeria Airways and Ghana Airways in recent years contributed to gaps in the continent's air services. 

Nigeria Airways has since been replaced by privately-run Virgin Nigeria, Ghana International Airlines has been launched and a host of national and private airlines have stepped in to snap up many of Air Afrique's former routes around West and central Africa. 

But Folly Kossi said many were simply not big enough. 

"Air companies in the region are too small and too weak to compete effectively. The small size of companies in the region constitutes a major handicap when it comes to the structure of their network," he said at the first African Airlines Forum, which opened in landlocked Mali's capital Bamako on Thursday. 

Sector development is only possible if consolidation takes place, he said, pointing to well-established airlines such as Libya's Afriqiyah Airways and East Africa's Kenya Airways as models of success. 

Africa accounts for around 4 to 4.5 percent of the world's air transport market, said officials at the forum, inspired by the Cannes Airlines Forum held each year in France.


----------



## hkskyline

*Military plane crashes in northern Kenya, killing 7 politicians, 6 others *
By TOM MALITI 
10 April 2006

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - A military plane traveling to a peace conference in northern Kenya crashed while attempting to land Monday, killing a Cabinet minister, two assistant ministers and four other lawmakers, along with at least six other people. 

The plane crashed into a hill near the town of Marsabit, 450 kilometers (280 miles) northeast of Nairobi, while carrying political leaders to a meeting intended to ease tribal tensions along the Ethiopian border, said Parliamentary Speaker Francis ole Kaparo. 

"This is the worst tragedy to hit the National Assembly," he said. "We have lost a lot of very good people in this crash." 

Kaparo said the lawmakers on the plane were Minister for Youth Affairs Mohammed Kuti; the assistant minister for internal security, Mirugi Kariuki; the assistant minister for regional development authorities, Titus Ngoyoni; the deputy leader of the opposition KANU party, Bonaya Godana; Abdi Sasura; and Dr. Guracha Galgallo Boru. 

Also on board was a Kenyan member of the East African Legislative Assembly, Abdullahi Adan, a retired army general who served under former President Daniel arap Moi, Kaparo added. 

Kaparo said he would adjourn parliament on Tuesday until all of the lawmakers were buried. 

The Ministry of Defense issued a statement reporting that 17 people were on the Chinese-built Y-12 twin-engine cargo plane when it crashed, "including government officials, leaders and crew." 

"The government has dispatched a search and rescue team to support rescue operations which are in progress," the statement said. 

Four people were pulled from the fiery wreckage alive, witnesses said. 

An aid worker at the Marsabit airstrip told The Associated Press that the four survivors were flown to the capital, Nairobi, for treatment. The survivors were identified as the commissioner for Eastern Province, Patrick Osare, Moyale District Commissioner Patrick Kingola and the two pilots. 

Godana was among the most prominent of the lawmakers. He was a former Cabinet minister who served as foreign affairs and agriculture minister, among other portfolios, between 1997 and 2002 in Moi's administration. 

President Mwai Kibaki issued a statement expressing "shock and concern" at the crash. 

In July, unknown assailants killed scores of people in Marsabit, including at least two dozen children in a school, provoking retaliatory attacks between members of different tribes and raising tensions in the area. 

Since that time there have been efforts to ease tensions, including Monday's planned meeting. 

In January 2003, a plane carrying four Cabinet ministers and other people, crashed in western Kenya killing one minister and the two pilots. A public inquiry into the crash recommended that in the future no more than three Cabinet ministers or senior government officials should travel on the same flight for security reasons. 

The report also noted that many airstrips in the country were poorly maintained and the government did not allocate enough money for their repair and maintenance.


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## hkskyline

*Weekly airline service to connect Washington area and West Africa *
11 April 2006

LINTHICUM, Maryland (AP) - An American airline announced Tuesday it will provide weekly service to West Africa from an airport outside the U.S. capital. 

Starting June 4, North American Airlines will offer nonstop service from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport to Banjul, The Gambia, and continue to Accra, Ghana. 

"This new international air service will foster new economic opportunities and advance the exchange of goods, services and ideas between the state of Maryland and the countries of West Africa," said Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who traveled to Africa with Maryland business executives in 2004. 

The once-a-week service will use Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, which seat about 270 people. 

Primarily a charter airline, New York-based North American Airlines offers commercial service to Guyana, in South America, as well as to Ghana, from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. 

North American's commercial service centers on "niche markets that are probably not large enough for a scheduled carrier but still have substantial traffic," said Steve Forsyth, a spokesman for the airline.


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## hkskyline

*Zimbabwe airline to lay off 30 percent of workforce *

HARARE, April 11, 2006 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's national carrier Tuesday announced plans to lay off 30 percent of its workforce -- or some 360 workers -- in a streamlining bid to reverse its flagging fortunes. 

"The airline is embarking on a staff rationalisation exercise with immediate effect," Mike Bimha, group chairman of Air Zimbabwe told reporters in Harare. 

"This will result in a 30 percent reduction in staff," he added. Air Zimbabwe employs 1,200 workers. 

Bimha said the restructuring would help the airline regain its status as one of the region's leading airlines. 

"Staffing levels have generally remained the same over the years despite the drop in passenger uplifts as well as operating a smaller fleet of aircraft, and loss of market share over the years." 

Dwindling tourism numbers have contributed significantly to Air Zimbabwe's route problems as visitors from the country's traditional tourist markets such as the United States and the European Union have shunned the southern African country. 

Western tourism numbers have dropped significantly since the 2000 parliamentary polls, which foreign observers claim were rigged to give President Robert Mugabe's ruling party victory. 

Last week, Air Zimbabwe acting chief executive officer Oscar Madombwe told a parliamentary committee that negative perceptions about the safety of travelling on the national carrier among other problems had seen the numbers of passengers using the airliner decreasing. 

Madombwe told the committee that passenger numbers declined from one million a year in 1999 to 23,000 last year. 

The tourism sector last year suffered a 49-percent drop in revenue compared with 2004, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority said. 

Bimha said the organisation would embark on a turn-around plan to address erratic fuel supplies which grounded the entire fleet in November last year, declining passenger numbers, foreign currency shortages and declining customer confidence.


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## hkskyline

*Nigeria blames weather for plane crashes - report *

ABUJA, April 16 (Reuters) - An interim report by Nigeria's Aviation Ministry blames bad weather for two plane crashes that killed 223 people late last year, according to an article by the state-owned News Agency of Nigeria. 

The article, published by several news Web sites over the weekend, said the preliminary report by the ministry's Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau blamed "heavy winds and other natural causes" for the crashes. 

However, Aviation Minister Babalola Borishade was quoted as saying other factors could have played a part in the crashes, and a final report would be ready in the next two months. 

Aviation officials were not immediately available to comment over the Easter holiday weekend. 

There has been no conclusive official report on the cause of the two crashes, which occurred within seven weeks of each other. 

On Oct. 22, a Boeing aircraft operated by private carrier Bellview crashed in stormy weather shortly after take-off from Lagos, killing all 117 people on board. It took authorities 15 hours to locate the site of the crash. 

There has been no word from a technical team of investigators including U.S. experts from Boeing who combed the crash site. 

On Dec. 10, a DC9 plane flown by another private airline, Sosoliso, crashed at Port Harcourt airport, killing 106 people of whom more than half were schoolchildren on their way home from boarding school for the Christmas break. 

The plane burned on the runway because there were no functional fire engines at the airport. 

Witnesses said the plane crash-landed during a storm, broke into pieces and burst into flames but there has been no official report on exactly what happened. 

Nigeria has been trying to overhaul its aviation sector since the two disasters. President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered urgent reforms to improve safety and several airlines were temporarily grounded while their fleets were inspected. 

Obasanjo said at the time that corners were being cut in every part of the aviation sector, which was tainted by corruption -- an endemic problem in Africa's most populous country. 

In the last six years the number of passengers who travel by air has doubled to eight million people, according to Borishade. However, most of Nigeria's commercial fleet is at least 20 years old.


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## hkskyline

*Black boxes from Cameroon plane crash found *

YAOUNDE, April 24, 2006 (AFP) - Investigators seeking the cause of the weekend crash of a Libyan cargo plane in Cameroon have found the aircraft's black box flight recorders, an official source said. 

The plane, a Russian-made Antonov of Libyan Airlines, came down on Sunday morning near the Cameroonian town of Kousseri on the border with Chad, killing all six Ukrainian crew members. 

The black boxes and the crew's passports were recovered from the wreckage. 

The plane had taken off from Sabaha in Libya at 0050 GMT Sunday and had been due to land three hours later at N'Djamena's international airport. 

It had been chartered by a foreign company to transport humanitarian aid, but failed to land at N'Djamena airport because of a technical problem. "Just before landing, air traffic control in N'Djamena noted that the aircraft was going into its approach at a high altitude," a Chadian official said. 

"He opened up the throttle again -- one can suppose there was a technical problem," he said, adding that the pilots had not mentioned any particular problem in their last conversation with the air traffic control tower. 

The plane came down a few minutes later at 4:55 am (0355 GMT) a few kilometres (miles) south of N'Djamena, in a marshy area of Kousseri.


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## hkskyline

*Kenya Airways starts pharmaceutical cargo service *

NAIROBI, April 25 (Reuters) - Kenya Airways has launched a new specialised cargo service to transport pharmaceutical products across Africa, becoming the first airline on the continent to offer the service. 

Shawn McGuinness, Kenya Airways head of cargo, said on Tuesday the KQ Pharma Service would include warehousing and the use of cool containers and dry ice to transport temperature sensitive pharmaceutical products to countries in the region. 

"This is the first in Africa. European airlines have this service but we are the first African airline to offer it," McGuinness told reporters. 

He said the airline would carry cargo requiring storage in temperatures ranging from -20 degrees to 25 degrees Celsius. 

The service is targeted at products such as insulin, vaccines, blood, plasma, drugs and biotech products, which are vulnerable to slight temperature variations during shipping. 

"We estimate that maybe 10 percent of our total cargo is pharmaceuticals. The growth we expect is double that, 20 percent on the trunk routes," McGuinness told reporters. 

KQ Pharma will begin on the Lusaka, Lilongwe and Entebbe routes, where the airline has wide-body aircraft. 

It is expected to be up and running on other routes in Africa by July this year, McGuinness said, adding that the majority of the products would come from India and Europe. 

Kenya Airways is 26 percent owned by KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France . The carrier registered 27 percent growth in cargo tonnage in the last quarter of 2005.


----------



## hkskyline

*Kenya Airways suspends start of flights to Eritrea *

NAIROBI, April 27 (Reuters) - Kenya Airways on Thursday said it had suspended the start of flights to Eritrea after Asmara placed currency restrictions on its operations. 

The Kenyan carrier was scheduled to begin flights to the Eritrean capital in May, a rare case of private-sector activity in the Red Sea state's highly state-controlled economy, which is often short of basic commodities such as bread and fuel. 

"We are facing currency restrictions, we can't purchase anything in dollars, we can't receive any payments in dollars and we can't repatriate any money," Patterson Siema, a spokesman for the airline, said. 

Kenya Airways had planned twice-weekly flights from Asmara via Djibouti rather than fly directly from Nairobi because passenger numbers were expected to be low. 

"We are in negotiations but the flights won't start on the second (of May) as we had planned," Siema said. 

The Kenyan national carrier has never flown to Asmara before. 

Analysts say Eritrea's frequent shortages of basic commodities are linked to high military spending, closed borders, persistent drought, government control of the economy and high fuel prices. 

Kenya Airways shares closed trading at an average of 106 Kenya shillings ($1.49) on Wednesday, unchanged from the day before.


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## hkskyline

*African ministers meet to tackle grim air safety record *

LIBREVILLE, May 18, 2006 (AFP) - African transport ministers began meeting Thursday to forge a common air safety policy for the continent, where the rate of fatal plane crashes is nine times the world average. 

The conference comes at "a critical moment where our continent is threatened with being marginalised in world air transport," said Gabonese Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong, opening the two-day meeting in the Gabonese capital. 

"The challenge consists of knowing how to benefit from the advantages of economic liberalisation ... without compromising security and safety," he added. 

Figures compiled by the 53-member African Union show that while Africa handles only about three to four percent of the world's air traffic, its airlines are responsible for a third of all fatal air crashes. 

Two crashes in Nigeria late last year killed a total of 225 people amid mounting concern that the country's ageing fleet of privately owned passenger planes and ramshackle airport infrastructure is no longer fit to carry travellers safely between the busy cities of Africa's most populous nation. 

Another three crashes last year occurred in Sudan; all involved old Soviet-built aircraft. 

Seeking to reverse this grim trend, the African Union meeting aims to implement a common air safety policy for Africa backed by financial commitments from member states. 

"I believe in our willingness and our capacity" to meet the challenge, Eyeghe Ndong said, "notably by improving the competitivity of our companies and the reliability of our aircraft." 

"We have to review the African air traffic system from top to bottom," Paul Mba Abessole, the Gabonese deputy prime minister in charge of transport, said ahead of the meeting. 

"We have to reduce the accident rate significantly ... so as to observe the road map of the OACI," he added, referring to requirements of the world air travel standards body, the International Civil Aviation Organisation. 

In March the body set a two-year deadline for countries with bad air safety records to meet its regulations. 

The first challenge facing the ministers at Thursday's meeting was to ensure the safety of African companies' fleets, which consist largely of old Soviet aircraft bought at rock-bottom prices from eastern Europe. 

Congo recently banned passenger flights of Russian-built Antonov aircraft after a series of crashes. Equatorial Guinea suspended flights of Antonov and Yak planes, which are also Russian-built. 

African countries also face a pressing need to overhaul national air regulation authorities and tackle laxness in procedures for issuing flying and registration certificates. 

The European Union in March published a blacklist of dangerous, mostly African, airlines, banning them from European airspace. 

"The EU blacklist singled out companies that never go to Europe but it has been very detrimental to the image of the whole air sector in Africa," said Christian Folly-Kossi, secretary general of the Association of African Air Companies. 

"Air transport is a vital sector for the development of our economies," he said. "So we have a duty to quickly meet the norms for air safety."


----------



## hkskyline

*Nigeria orders airlines to recapitalise by next year *

ABUJA, May 24, 2006 (AFP) - The Nigerian government Wednesday announced that as from March, a would-be airlines would need at least 500 million naira (3.8 million dollars/ three million euros) capital to be granted an operational license in the country. 

"We have created three levels of operators. The ones for domestic, the ones for regional and international operations," Aviation Minister Babalola Borisade told reporters after a cabinet meeting. 

"For domestic operators, the cabinet has approved 500 million naira as capital investment, for regional operators, it is one billion naira and for international operators, you need two billion naira (15.2 million dollars / 12.16 million euros)," Borisade said. 

Borisade said this new rate which is effective from March 2007, was recommended by a presidential committee set up after the three air accidents that claimed hunderds of lives in Nigeria last year. 

Up till now, airlines operating local or international flights out of Nigeria were required to pay between 2.5 million naira and 20 million naira to be granted an operational licence, a spokesman of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Sam Adurogboye, told AFP. 

The three types of licences are air transport for all airlines operating normal scheduled flights, air travel organiser's licence for registered companies that do not have aircraft but operate flights by contracting other airlines, and air operating permit for state-run and oil companies that operate flights with their aircraft, he said. 

The new licence tariff, which will come into effect next year, is part of government effort to reform and "sanitise" the aviation industry, added Adurogboye.


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## hkskyline

*S.African Airways fined for price fixing *

JOHANNESBURG, May 24 (Reuters) - South Africa's Competition Commission said on Wednesday it has fined national carrier South African Airways (SAA) 55 million rand ($8.34 million) for price fixing and abusing its dominant market position. 

The latest penalty comes as the state-owned airline braces for a potential loss for the year which ended on March 31. 

Africa's largest airline was fined 45 million rand last year for anti-competitive behaviour by the commission. 

In a statement the Competition Commission said the fine related to price fixing by SAA and German airline Lufthansa on their flights between Cape Town, Johannesburg and Frankfurt. 

The two carriers have a route code-sharing arrangement. The commission is in talks with Lufthansa on the issue. 

The commission said SAA was also found to have colluded with budget airline Comair, part-owned by British Airways , and SA Express to simultaneously implement a fuel surchage levy, which the competition watchdog said amounted to price fixing. 

"Comair admitted its involvement in the collusion and agreed to assist the commission with its investigation. Comair further successfully applied for immunity from prosecution," the commission said. 

SAA was also penalised for agreements with travel agents, which the Competition Commission said constituted inducements to them not to deal with the airline's competitors. 

"The agreements ... entrenched and increased SAA's dominance in the market for domestic airline travel and impeded SAA's competitors from expanding and competing fairly in the market," the commission said. 

SAA expects a soaring fuel bill to have pushed it into the red for fiscal 2005/06. It reported a 240-million-rand operating loss in the first half because of oil prices and a wage strike which cost between 100 and 150 million rand.


----------



## hkskyline

*Four feared dead in crash by Air Sao Tome's only plane *

SAO TOME, May 24, 2006 (AFP) - All four persons aboard were feared killed when the only aircraft owned by Air Sao Tome, a small 12-seater Twin Otter, crashed into the sea off the island republic, civil aviation and airline officials said Wednesday. 

The body of a woman had been recovered from the sea, they said. Body parts of other victims had been retrieved but not yet been formally identified, the local air safety authority said. 

The cause of the accident during a training flight in the Gulf of Guinea off west Africa was not immediately known. 

A pilot nearing the end of training, a Gabonese instructor and two other people were aboard when the plane plunged into the sea Monday night, an aviation source said. 

The twin-engined Canadian-made De Havilland plane had taken off from Sao Tome, the name of the capital of the small island republic Sao Tome and Principe, and came down less than one kilometre (approx. half a mile) from its coast, according to civil aviation officials and Air Sao Tome staff. 

One civil aviation source said a heavy wind had been blowing when the plane took off. 

Authorities had begun investigations, examining debris from the plane washed ashore. 

The aircraft flew regular runs between the capital and Libreville, capital of the west African state of Gabon, and also to the island of Principe, second of the islands in the group. 

According to a local internet information site called Vitrina, a professional pilot had less than a week ago sent an open letter to the authorities warning of alleged defects in the plane, with "danger that passengers risked in using this Twin Otter".


----------



## hkskyline

*Africa Hopes to Reclaim Skies from European Carriers*

*African airlines reclaim their skies from European operators *

TUNIS, May 30, 2006 (AFP) - Heads of African airlines and regional bodies on Tuesday said they wanted to reclaim the continent's skies from European operators who dominate the market. 

"It's inconceivable today to have to pass in transit through Europe to travel to a neighbouring country," said Christian Folly-Kossi, secretary general of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), at the end of a two-day meeting in Tunisia. 

Folly-Kossi underlined the lack of services "across the continent" and called on African airlines to work together to improve the situation during a news conference at the end of the air transport meeting organised by the African Union (AU), the African Development Bank (ADB) and the AFRAA. 

According to the African airline body, 42 of its members transported 36 million passengers in Africa in 2004, compared with 72 million passengers transported to Africa by European companies (Air France/KLM, British Airways, Alitalia, Iberia, Lufthansa, SN Brussels and Swiss). 

Around 20 companies that took part in the meeting cited a lack of funds and the difficulty of creating an African network as their main worries, as well as the small amount of traffic between African countries. 

They called for a new African airline policy and adopted a plan of action, including asking African oil producing countries for reduced tarifs for countries within the AU and other financial proposals.


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## samsonyuen

I think it'd help if there were more regional airlines, and less national carriers.


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## hkskyline

*Equatorial Guinea lifts flight ban on two grounded air firms *

MALABO, June 2, 2006 (AFP) - Equatorial Guinea's transport ministry said Friday it had lifted a flight ban on two of 19 air transport firms grounded earlier this week on safety grounds. 

The two, Ecuatorial Cargo and Geasa, which happen to belong to kin of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, were found not to have warranted the cancellation of their licences, the ministry said. 

The national airline, Ecuatoguineana de Aviacion (EGA), and 18 other firms had their operating licences annulled on Monday by Deputy Transport Minister Miguel Iyanga Djoba following an inspection of aircraft fleets by South African experts. 

Only General Works Aviacion, which is a private operator, was allowed to remain in business, pending verified improvements in safety and airworthiness standards by other companies, state radio said. 

The other firms failed to meet standards laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and no carrier "can undertake commercial air transport operations without a valid airworthiness certificate", according to a ministerial decision. 

But an order signed Thursday by Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Mangue Obama Nfubea said Geasa and Ecuatorial Cargo had been found not guilty of irregularities requiring the cancellation of their certificates. 

Geasa (Guinea Ecuatorial Airlines) is owned by the president's eldest son, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Teodoro Nguema Obiang, known locally as "The Boss." 

Eleven of the firms covered by Monday's ban, including Geasa and Ecuatorial Cargo, were on a blacklist of airlines barred from flying to the European Union issued on March 22. 

The South African experts were called in after the crash on July 16, 2005, of an Antonov 24 operated by a private company while on a flight from Malabo, the capital on Bioko island, to Bata, the chief economic town on the mainland part of the central African country. 

The plane went down shortly after take-off, killing 81 people known to have crammed aboard an aircraft with a theoretical capacity of 48 passengers and four crew members.


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## hkskyline

*Britain demands explanation for security breach at Kenya airport *
By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY 
10 June 2006

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - The British government demanded an explanation Saturday after a security breach at Kenya's main airport in which a man pulled a gun on a police officer and fled. 

A diplomatic protest was delivered to the Foreign Ministry, said Mark Norton, spokesman for the British Embassy. He said Britain lodged the protest because it was concerned about the safety of British Airways flights. 

Security at Kenya's airports has been under intense scrutiny in recent years because of past al-Qaida attacks in the country. 

"The note said we are very concerned about the events as reported in the newspapers and asked for an immediate explanation and a government statement as to what occurred at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport," he said. 

The security breach Thursday happened when a man with a Kenya-issued all-access pass to the airport refused to allow a customs agent to search his bag, according to police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press. 

The man then pulled a gun on a police officer and fled with his luggage. He was arrested the next day, along with another man, and deported. 

The breach could lead to a suspension of British Airways flights to Kenya. The airline, which operates two flights a day between Nairobi and London, temporarily canceled flights here in 2003 after an attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner over Kenya. 

Al-Qaida has claimed responsibility for that attack, and for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. More than 200 Africans and 12 Americans were killed in those attacks.


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## SE9

^

This was relating to the deportation of two Armenian brothers (Mr Artur Margaryan and Mr Artur Sargsyan).

They both drew pistols in an attempt to free a female guest who refused to open her bag at customs.


----------



## hkskyline

*Nigerians on trial over airline *

LAGOS, Jan 23, 2007 (AFP) - Five Nigerians went on trial here Tuesday charged with attempting to smuggle explosives onto an aircraft, legal officials said. 

One of the five, Samuel Dickson, was arrested on November 18 at Lagos Airport as he tried to check in baggage containing explosives on a flight to Nigeria's capital Abuja. 

Four alleged accomplices -- John Awojirin, Edward Adebisi, Uche Eni and Fisayo Omoyemi -- were also arrested, and charged with a range of offences including the procurement, possession, concealment and attempted smuggling of explosives onto the aircraft. 

The explosives were contained in four metal cylinders inside a suitcase, prosecutors said. 

The plane was operated by regional carrier Bellview Airlines. 

Judge Mohammed Shuaib of the Federal High Court in Lagos adjourned the case till February 6. 

Nigerian aviation authorities have ordered security at Lagos and some 20 other airports to be stepped up.


----------



## hkskyline

*Spanish police arrest Air Mauritania hijacker *

MADRID, Feb 16, 2007 (AFP) - Spanish police on Thursday arrested an armed Mauritanian man seeking political asylum in France who had hijacked an Air Mauritania aircraft with 79 people on board and forced it to land in the Canary Islands. 

"The hijacking finished in a satisfactory manner," Canary Islands police chief Jose Segura said on Spanish national radio, adding that the 71 passengers and eight crew members had been freed. 

Spanish police said late Thursday that the hijacker was a Mauritanian. The government had indicated earlier that he was Moroccan. 

The unidentified hijacker, who was carrying two guns, did not resist arrest, Segura said. He had been overpowered by passengers as the aircraft landed in Las Palmas, and was slightly injured, witnesses said quoted by Spanish media. 

The hijacker was seeking to take the plane to France, a source close to the Spanish government told AFP, adding that the man had no link to terrorism. 

He "wanted to force the pilot to fly to France. He (the pilot) answered that there was not enough fuel," said one airport security official. 

According to a report on Moroccan television station El Ayoun, several of the passengers were "lightly wounded." 

"The passengers were lightly wounded while trying to gain control over the hijacker who was carrying a gun," El Ayoun reported, quoting airline attendant Mouloud Kourina, who was at the Las Palmas airport waiting to start his shift onboard the hijacked plane. 

Emergency service workers meanwhile told Spanish media that several people had suffered "contusions" and that a pregnant woman had had a nervous breakdown. 

The plane, a Boeing 737, had taken off from Nouakchott at 5:40 pm (1740 GMT). It was scheduled to stop over in Nouadhibou, Mauritania's second city in the north of the country, within 45 minutes of flying out of the Mauritanian capital, but was diverted. 

It tried to land at Dakhla, a small coastal city in Western Sahara, about 1,770 kilometres (1,100miles) south of Rabat, but was refused permission, security forces sources said. 

"They wanted to refuel in Dakhla, but the Moroccan authorities refused. They then went to Las Palmas to re-fuel," with plans to proceed to France after that, one source said. 

The Las Palmas airport remained on alert after the hijacking, Spanish national radio reported. It reopened at 2100 GMT.


----------



## hkskyline

*Somali gunmen attack Mogadishu's airport *

MOGADISHU, Feb 22, 2007 (AFP) - Gunmen fired explosives into the main airport in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Thursday as insurgents stepped up attacks in the city, officials said Friday. 

They said there were no casualities, but the report was not independently confirmed. 

"I saw the attack and was scared," said Mohammed Ahmed, a resident who lives near the facility in southern Mogadishu. 

Earlier, two local Mogadishu officials in the increasingly lawless capital were shot dead by unidentified gunmen, highlighting the worsening insecurity in the seaside city, home to about a million people. 

When the latest airport attacks occured, planes owned by Kenyan-based African Airways and Air Djibouti were at the facility that is controlled by the weak government of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. 

Insecurity has forced Yusuf to set up shop in the backwater, provincial outpost of Baidoa, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of the capital and his repeated vows to relocate to the traditional capital have failed to materialise. 

The recent attacks that have killed dozens of people have also forced thousands of people to flee to safer locations, notably in southern Somalia where a few aid groups are struggling to help the needy. 

The attacks were among a series of raids in the coastal city since Ethiopian troops helped Somali government fighters oust the powerful Islamist movement from Mogadishu late last year. 

The Islamists had managed to maintain law and order in Mogadishu, one of the most dangerous cities in the world. 

The transitional government, supported by many of the clan warlords whose rival militias carved up Somalia after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, has pledged to restore order in Mogadishu. 

But until neighboring Ethiopia intervened, the Islamic Courts Union had controlled the capital since June last year and established its authority over other southern towns and regions, where it had managed to restore law and order. 

Ethiopia justified intervention by claiming the Islamists were a direct threat, and was backed by the United States which accuses them of Al-Qaeda links. The move has prompted mixed feelings among Mogadishu residents. 

Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi has repeatedly called for an urgent deployment of African Union peacekeepers to Somalia, a country of about 10 million people. 

But gunmen believed allied to the Islamists have been accused of raiding the positions in the capital, killing dozens of people in the past month and complicating efforts to exert its control across the country. 

The African Union, hamstrung by disagreements as well as funding and manpower problems, has so far managed to raise half of the required 8,000 peacekeepers with officials saying they have received troop pledges from Nigeria, Burundi, Malawi and Ghana. 

The United States has urged African countries to take part in the AU that was approved Wednesday by the United Nations Security Council but still lacking half of the troops needed. 

In addition, the violence pours cold water on Yusuf's pledge to convene a national reconciliation conference to heal rifts in the country torn apart by systemic bloodletting. 

Somalia, home to 10 million people, has lacked an effective central authority since 1991 coup, after which warlords established their authority and started imposing their own rules.


----------



## hkskyline

*Virgin Atlantic aims for 25 percent of Kenyan market *

NAIROBI, March 19, 2007 (AFP) - Britain-based Virgin Atlantic has set its sights on 25 percent of the market share when it launches its London-Nairobi route later this year, its chairman Sir Richard Branson said Monday. 

Branson said the daily service, to be operated by a 240-seater Airbus A340-300 aircraft, would be launched June 2 and will target a quarter of the market share currently dominated by British Airways and Kenyan Airways. 

"The total market is about 500,000 passengers (per year) and we expect to get around 100,000 in our first year," he told a press conference here to promote the route. 

"If it is successful and we put on two planes, we hope to capture bigger than 25 percent," he added. 

Nairobi will become Virgin Atlantic's fourth African destination. The company also plans to launch a London-Mauritius flight in November. It already flies to Cape Town, Lagos and Johannesburg. 

Kenyan Tourism Board (KTB) chief Ochieng Ong'ong'a said the move would boost Kenya's tourism sector, the keystone of the east African nation's flagging economy. 

"The launch of Virgin Atlantic flights is an endorsement of Kenya as a safe tourism destination and investment," Ong'ong'a told AFP. 

Since an attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa in 2002, the United States has maintained a travel warning advising its nationals to exercise caution in Kenya for fears of terrorism. 

Kenya has in recent months reported a surge in violent crime across the country, mainly in the capital Nairobi.


----------



## SE9

*KLM to deploy a bigger jet on Nairobi route*

_By Brian Adero_

The Air France and KLM Group will replace their Boeing 777 on the Nairobi route with a wider Boeing 747 – 400 aircraft during this year’s summer schedule.

The groups say it has increased long haul capacity this year by 5.4 per cent compared with last summer, and by 4.3 per cent on the medium haul network. Capacity from Europe to Latin America will increase by 11.4 per cent and Asia up by 7.3 per cent, and to North America by 10.1 per cent. In a statement, the Group’s Media Relations Manager, Mr Bart Koster, says Africa will see a lesser increase capacity, up 3.1 per cent.

A Boeing 767 aircraft, which has been operating on the Abuja — Kano and Entebbe routes, has been replaced by an Airbuss A330. Entebbe will see an increase of frequencies from three times to five times weekly. The capacity to the Middle East and the French Caribbean and Indian Ocean networks will undergo the usual seasonal adjustments. "KLM and Air France continue their policy of growing the number of destinations and the amount of capacity in emerging markets like China, India and South America," said Koster. The number of weekly KLM return flights to China will increase to 34, including seven code share flights with partner China Southern from Amsterdam to Beijing and Guangzhou. This is the third consecutive season that KLM has expanded frequencies to China. "Together with Air France the weekly number of flights to China will expand to 69, which is more than any other European airline group," Koster said.

Through its successful transatlantic joint venture with North West Airlines, KLM will drastically increase the number of destinations and flight frequencies on the routes. New flights will be introduced between Amsterdam and Hertford, between Detroit and Brussels and between Detroit and Dusseldolf.

Northwest Airlines will also double the number of flights to be operated with Northwest’s B757 aircraft in a special transatlantic two-class configuration.

Increases on Los Angeles and Boston routes include an early morning departure from Amsterdam, offering a good connection for passengers arriving from the Middle East, deploys a bigger jet for route to Nairobi


----------



## SE9

*Kenya Airways resumes flights to DR Congo*

_By Brian Adero_

Kenya Airways (KQ) has resumed flights to Southern Democratic Republic of Congo after a nine-day suspension last month to allow for repair of the runway at Lubumbashi Airport.

Mr Michael Okwiri, the airline’s marketing and communications manager, said the flights will be on Mondays and Saturdays through Harare, Zimbabwe.

"We will operate a circular KQ 426 on Mondays and Saturdays via Harare," he said in a statement.

KQ will fly a Boeing 737 that with a capacity of 16 business-class passengers and another 100 in the economy class.

Okwiri said the return flight from Lubumbashi is scheduled to depart at 1250 hrs (local time), arriving in Nairobi at 1625hrs. The return flight on Wednesday will depart from Lubumbashi at 0950 hrs arriving in Nairobi at 1600hrs.

The airline will also operate a direct flight to Lubumbashi on Wednesdays departing at 0950hrs.

Okwiri said the resumption of the flights on this route is meant to significantly benefit air passengers traveling to both Europe and Asia through Nairobi.

On March 22, KQ announced it would suspend its flights to Lubumbashi for 13 days to allow the runway renovation.


----------



## SE9

*Battle for the Kenyan skies * 
_April 19, 2007_
_By Peter Thatiah_

*Industry faces tough test as airlines seek strategic expansion*









_The Britain-based Virgin Atlantic airline comes at a time when most of the local airlines are either on a grand route expansion or major restructuring exercises. KQ recently added Liberia and Benin to its route schedule._

The touted entrance into the golden age of the local airline industry is just about to face its toughest test so far or, depending on which side of the hill you view it from, its most ringing endorsement yet.

With estimated annual earnings of the local airline industry now scaling towards an unprecedented Sh20 billion mark, coupled with the entrance of Virgin Atlantic Airlines just in a month’s time, the dice can roll either way.

The maiden Virgin Atlantic flight, an Airbus A340-300 with 240 seats on board in which 34 are upper class and 35 premium economy with the rest 171 in the economy class, arrives in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from London’s Heathrow at 06.05hrs on June 1, 2007.

The premier airline will be running daily shuttles between Nairobi and London before rolling out what founder Richard Branson has called a strategic network soon after.

If the figures of both the local industry’s earnings and flight volume are promising, then projection figures offer glittering prospects. Already, more than 500,000 passengers are flying direct into the Nairobi hub annually.

The Kenya Tourism Board projects the number of tourists coming to Kenya to peak at five million by 2012. When you put into the fare the growing stature of Nairobi as an international conference centre, coupled with a booming economy that is spurring international travel by the local population, the picture cannot get rosier.

But just what threat does Virgin Atlantic pose to the airlines already established in the country? There has been mixed reactions from the major players in Kenya, with the biggest number opting to remain noncommittal.

But when the pros and cons have been settled, vague as they may be at the moment, industry analysts are unanimous that something unique is happening in the local airline industry.

Major restructuring exercises

Mr John Mmweywa, the Operations Manager of the locally-owned Aero Kenya, says: "For domestic and regional fliers like us, who are the majority of the airlines in the local scene, the entrance of the Virgin Atlantic Airlines is good news.

Since the newcomer is strictly long-haul, it means it will be the opening of another window of opportunity for us. It is one more long-hauler from where we can in return get connecting passengers."

The Britain-based airline comes at a time when most of the local airlines are either on a grand route expansion or major restructuring exercises.

Kenya Airways, which controls up to 60 per cent of the local industry’s pie, has been the most ambitious so far in route expansion in the recent past with a raft of new direct routes to Europe and the Great Lakes region.

Daallo Airlines, which has in the recent past dominated the cargo hauls to the volatile Horn of Africa region, is also in the process of an expansion programme of its Nairobi office, a sign that the airlines’ Country Director, Mrs Perveen Cocker, says are the regional airline’s perception to the importance of the Nairobi hub.

The latest entrant into the expansion race is the industry’s new kid on the block: fly540.com. Barely half an year since it was established in Nairobi, fly540.com will start flying to regional destinations beginning September 2007.

Already, the nascent player in the local scene has caused a stir in the local aviation industry with the introduction of their concept of low-cost domestic flights. Mr Nixon Ooko, the airline’s operations director, says the low-cost flights were never an introductory offer, as has been suggested before, but that it is their policy and it is there to stay.

The airline will fly to Kampala, Dar-es-Salaam, Juba and Kinshasa, posing competition to Kenya Airways, which has several flights on the routes.

Serving the world’s most lucrative routes

According to Mmweywa, with virtually no airlines currently based in Kinshasa and Juba, still deemed insecure by airline investors, and with Kampala and Dar-es-Salaam increasingly depending on Nairobi for connection flights, the airlines serving the regional routes are bracing themselves for any boom to be occasioned by the introduction of the Virgin Atlantic Airlines.

With 27 destinations worldwide (three of which are already established in Africa) and with a route to Chicago in April next year and Mauritius in October 2007, Virgin Atlantic is not new in Africa.

Indeed, according to a past interview with Amanda Wills, the Managing Director of Virgin Holidays, a subsidiary of the airline, Kenya has been in their pipeline for quite some time now.

She says: "Virgin Holidays has offered holidays to Kenya in our worldwide brochure for a number of years and it has always proved popular with our customers.

Now that Virgin Atlantic will be offering direct flights, we are sure that demand will grow." From its inception, Virgin Atlantic has always made it clear that it is not in the business of global domination of routes.

The airline’s concept has been that of exclusively serving the world’s most lucrative routes. Bulk has held little resonance for the airline. Class has been the airline’s forte.

Henceforth, in the face of this competition, industry analysts are of the view that long-haul flights flying to and from Kenya will have to give a critical look-see on the onboard service front.

When Virgin Atlantic started operations in 1984, one of its main competitors in the lucrative transatlantic route was British Airways.

What irked the British national carrier was the version of its bold interior design, then considered outrageous in the conservative industry dominated by national carriers.

Today, what it started has over the years become the rule rather than the exception. Among a raft of coveted awards it won last year included "The Best Business Class Airline".

The onboard frills of the premier airline’s aircraft, which read like an opera script, might be worthy food for thought for the local airlines: "Virgin Atlantic’s new upper class suite consists of a reclining leather seats for takeoff, a place to sit and eat a three-course meal opposite your partner, the longest fully flat bed in the world and a proper mattress for sleeping on, a private onboard bar to drink at with your friends, a private massage zone and four limousines per return trip — all at a price thousands of pounds less than the airline’s first class. The upper class experience also includes drive-thru check-in, the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, among others.


----------



## SE9

*Africa Records World's Highest Growth Rate in Air Travelers in 2006*

_The Ethiopian Herald (Addis Ababa)_

The increase in the number of air passengers recorded in Africa in 2006 was higher than in the rest of the world, Xinhua reported from Dakar.

The report quoted Vinod Chidambaram, vice-president for the African region of International Air Transport Association (IATA) as saying that the "increase in the number of air passengers recorded in Africa in 2006 was 8.6 per cent, a rate which was higher than that of other world regions".
Africa 2007

Describing projections for the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Africa estimated to be 5.2 per cent for 2007 and 5.3 for 2008 as encouraging, the regional vice-president said. The number of air passengers in Africa will continue to grow this year and in the future, he added.

He however warned that conditions such as the reduction of air transport costs and improvement in efficiency and reliability of services as well as dealing with matters affecting the sector must be met in order that air transport companies in Africa can reap real benefits from this growth.


----------



## SE9

*Malaysia, Kenya Agree To Establish Direct Air Links*

_From S. Retna_

NAIROBI (KENYA), April 18 (Bernama) -- Malaysia and Kenya have agreed in principle to create direct air linkages between their capital cities Kuala Lumpur and Nairobi, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced Wednesday.

The prime minister said the agreement was reached during a meeting between him and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, Wednesday morning.

"If we are to boost trade and ties between the two countries, it was agreed that we would need to have direct air linkages. I spoke to the president about it and he agreed.

"And now we are leaving it to the respective airlines to work out some mechanism to make this a reality," he told a news conference after the Malaysia-Kenya Business Forum luncheon here.

Abdullah is on a two-day official visit to Kenya, which began yesterday. It is part of his whirlwind eight-day tour of three African nations, namely Sudan, Kenya and Namibia.

Elaborating, Abdullah said he would inform Malaysia Airlines of the government's proposal and then "we would let the companies talk".

It is likely that Kenya Airways, which now flies to Bangkok, would be involved in the negotiations.

"This is something we require if we want more contacts among the people and for business and joint-ventures between the two countries to flourish.

"Moreover, we want more Kenyan students to come to Malaysia to further their studies. This (direct air links) would make it easier for us to attract these potential students," he said.

Currently, there are about 600 Kenyans pursuing their studies at various public and private institutions of higher learning in Malaysia.

Abdullah also announced the setting up of a Malaysia-Kenya Joint Commission which would meet at least once a year.

He said the commission would be tasked to implement and oversee matters that had been agreed upon by the two nations and help sort out problems that would crop up from time to time.

"These can be issues pertaining to business set-ups to immigration matters. We have also agreed that our High Commissions be used by the joint commission to settle matters instead of waiting for the annual joint commission meeting," he said.

On another matter, Abdullah said Malaysia would find a way to make it easier for Kenyans to obtain student visas.

"The authorities in Kenya are concerned about the various checks and the time taken for these students to get a Malaysian visa," Abdullah added.

Earlier, he attended a bilateral meeting between the Malaysian and Kenyan delegations and witnessed the signing of two memorandums of understanding, namely on Scientific and Technological Cooperation and Planning and Implementation of Road Projects.

He will also attend a high tea with members of the Malaysian community in Kenya before attending a state banquet tonight.

Thursday morning, Abdullah will leave for the famous Maasai Mara game reserve in the Serengeti plains before leaving for Namibia in the afternoon.


----------



## SE9

*Brussels Airlines launches extra flight to Nairobi*

_Story by NATION Correspondent and Agencies
Publication Date: 2007/04/26_
*
Brussels Airlines has launched an extra flight to Nairobi, bringing its service to six flights a week.*









_Kenya Tourist Board Chairman Jake Grieves-Cook (left) with Brussels Airlines country manager, Philippe Saeys-Desmedt during the launch. _

Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) chairman Jake Grieves-Cook said the additional flight would increase the number of tourists into the country, through the airline to 80,000 annually. “The increase in frequency ties very well with our promotion activities by bringing more visitors into our country,” he said during the airline’s briefing in Nairobi.

The extra sixth-weekly flight operates on Sunday and is expected to link Kenyan businesses with Europe through Brussels.

Brussels Airlines regional manager Philippe Saeys-Desmedt said the extra flight reflected the increasing demand for travel to Kenya from Benelux countries— Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. 

“Coming as it does just a few months after our $12 million (Sh828 million) in-flight upgrade, which included flatbeds in business class, it demonstrates our commitment to offering the best service to our services to and from Kenya,” he said.

Brussels Airlines formed November 7, 2006 from the merger between SN Brussels Airlines – the largest full service Belgian airline – and Virgin Express, the first of the European low cost airlines.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s 2007 tourism earnings are seen rising by 6.8 per cent to 60 billion shillings, thanks to expectations of more than one million foreign arrivals this year, Grieves-Cook said.

Tourism was the highest earner in 2006 for the country famous for its sandy beaches and wildlife safaris. “This year, for the first time, we will have over a million visitors flying into our two main airports,” he added.

He said there were 954,000 arrivals in 2006. “Earnings will be 60 billion Kenya shillings, it’s moving up. Tourism gives us a huge opportunity here.”

The industry brought in 56.2 billion shillings in 2006 after years of decline following terrorist attacks in 1998 and 2002. “A few years ago, we were seeing airlines going out of Kenya, now we are seeing airlines come back to Kenya and that is a very welcome move,” he said.


----------



## SE9

*Rescuers comb jungle for Kenya Airways wreckage*

_05 May 2007 22:28:14 GMT_


_By Tansa Musa_

YAOUNDE, May 6 (Reuters) - Teams of rescuers and villagers combed thick tropical forest in southern Cameroon on Sunday for the wreckage of a Kenya Airways passenger plane which crashed after takeoff in the central African country, officials said.

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which was carrying 114 people from more than 20 countries, went missing on Saturday after leaving Douala airport bound for Nairobi in torrential rain. It was reported to have come down in thick jungle.

Military helicopters backed up by villagers on motorbikes had searched a swathe of the forest-covered terrain southwest of the capital Yaounde on Saturday.

But they failed to locate the plane, which initially set off from Ivory Coast, before darkness fell.

"The crisis committee ... has decided to set up several teams made up of villagers to continue the search throughout the night," Placide Ndobo, a local government official in the southern region, told Reuters.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said he had sent a high-level government team led by Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere to help the Cameroonian authorities find out what had happened to the plane.

"I wish to assure all that we have put in motion a mechanism to help establish the status of the Kenya Airways plane," Kibaki said in a statement.

Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni said on Saturday the authorities in Cameroon had picked up an automatically generated distress signal from the area where the plane went missing.

Radar-equipped helicopters, including one sent by the French military from a base in neighbouring Gabon, were focusing on an area between three or four towns, a French diplomat in Cameroon said.

The aircraft, which was only six months old, was carrying 105 passengers and nine crew, including Africans, Chinese, Indians, Europeans and an American.

Kenya Airways said the Douala control tower had received a last message from the aircraft right after takeoff. It had been due to land in Nairobi at 6:15 a.m. (0315 GMT) on Saturday.

Kenya Airways has three 737-800s in its fleet and Naikuni said they had not decided whether to ground the others.


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## Xusein

I heard about that. How sad. 

As for this thread, great stuff SE9! I'm just discovering it, lol.


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## hkskyline

*Reconstructing the last moments of Kenya Airways Flight 507 *
11 May 2007

DOUALA, Cameroon (AP) - Three jetliners sat ready for takeoff at Douala International Airport, their crews waiting for a massive thunderstorm to move away. 

Just a few minutes past midnight, all three radioed air traffic control to check the weather report. They were told the storm would take another hour to dissipate, and the Cameroon Airlines and Royal Air Maroc crews opted to wait it out. 

But Capt. Francis Mbatia Wamwea of Kenya Airways Flight 507, already delayed for an hour and carrying scores of passengers with onward connections to catch, judged the weather had improved sufficiently to permit departure for Nairobi, Kenya. 

It was a fateful decision that investigators believe may have cost the lives of the nine crew and 105 passengers of Flight 507, which was ensnared in the raging storm this past Saturday and crashed into the jungle less than a minute after takeoff. 

After Wamwea gave the go-ahead, the Kenyan Airways crew radioed the tower, pulled away from the gate and taxied toward Runway 12, heading roughly southwest from the airport. 

Douala tower cleared the flight for takeoff a few minutes later, instructing it to report on reaching 5,000 feet (1,500 meters). 

The pilot acknowledged. It was not clear what time that final voice transmission was received from the Boeing 737-800. 

The plane nose-dived into a swamp on the outskirts of Cameroon's commercial hub just 30 seconds after becoming airborne, killing all aboard. The passengers included Cameroonian merchants, an American AIDS expert, businesspeople from China, India and South Africa, a Tanzanian returning from peacekeeping duties in Ivory Coast, a U.N. refugee worker from Togo. Anthony Mitchell, a Nairobi-based correspondent for The Associated Press, was among the victims. 

The six-month old plane was of the newest generation of the world's most popular airliner and has an excellent safety record. This is only the second time a 737-800 has crashed with the loss of all on board. Last September, an airliner belonging to Brazil's Gol airline collided in mid-air with an executive jet over the Amazon jungle. 

One Cameroonian investigator and a government pilot assisting the probe, both speaking on condition of anonymity because fact-finding is still underway, said Wamwea's decision to depart into one of the violent tropical storms that regularly ravages parts of equatorial Africa during the rainy season was most likely the pivotal factor in a sequence of events that led to the crash in which all 114 aboard perished. 

In Kenya Friday, Kenya Airways chief executive Titus Naikuni said investigators would have to make the final assessment. The probe was likely to take months. 

"We don't want to start speculating here," he said. "So whether the pilot did the wrong thing or the right thing, I cannot answer that." 

Flight crews are responsible for the decision whether to take off or land in bad weather, usually depending on guidelines prescribed by their airline. And while air traffic control can take measures to prevent flights, including closing down airports, such drastic measures are highly unusual outside the northern hemisphere where heavy winter snows can block runways and bring traffic to a standstill. 

Douala airport is not equipped with weather radar, but the 737-800 is. Pilots routinely take off into stormy weather and then rely on radar to guide them around the towering cumulonimbus thunderheads that can cause structural damage to airframes. 

Wamwea, 53, was an experienced flyer with about 8,500 hours on jets. He had joined Kenya Airways 20 years ago and enjoyed the reputation of a diligent and professional pilot. 

The co-pilot, Andrew Kiuru was only 23. He joined the airline a year ago after completing flight school in South Africa. 

The cockpit voice recorder has not yet been found, so no details of the final exchanges between Wamwea and Kiuru are available. It remains unclear which man was flying the plane at the time, but Wamwea would have been the ultimate authority. 

The flight data recorder has been recovered. 

Two minutes after Flight 507 would have been expected to reach 5,000 feet, the point at which it had been instructed to check in, Douala Area Control Center issued a distress message. This is normal practice by air traffic control when unable to immediately establish contact with an aircraft, a fairly frequent occurrence. But controllers, who had lost sight of the plane fairly quickly because of the storm, were not unduly worried because the plane had fuel for six hours flying time. 

A search was launched at 2:44 a.m. when a French radar station sent in a message that an airplane distress signal had been picked up. A Cameroonian air force plane and two helicopters first flew over a region far to the south, basing their search on the distress signal which was in fact hundreds of kilometers (miles) away from the actual crash. 

It is unclear why the signal was so far off the mark, but it appears the plane's emergency locator beacon's final signal was garbled -- indicating a false position. 

And although the crash site is virtually directly beneath the flight path for planes taking off from Douala, nobody saw it because of the jungle canopy that covers the area. 

The wreckage was found 40 hours after takeoff by a local hunter who chanced upon it in a mangrove swamp and reported it to the air force. It was located just 5.4 kilometers (3.4 miles) from Runway 12. Using speed calculations, experts estimate the plane had been in the air for just 30 seconds and had never climbed over 3,000 feet (914.4 meters). 

Commercial jets regularly fly over the area, one of several standard departure routes from Runway 12. Villagers living near the swamp said they heard planes passing overhead during the night, and a particularly loud boom which sounded like a thunderbolt. 

Since there were no witnesses to the crash itself, investigators have pieced together the known facts and formulated several theories on what could have happened. 

The wreckage in the thick jungle indicated the plane flew nose-first into the ground at a nearly 90 degree angle. It was found buried deep in a crater of reddish-brown muck with only tiny bits of the rear fuselage and wings left above ground. Trees nearby were smashed, but otherwise the jungle canopy remains intact, making the site almost invisible from the air. 

Investigators said the nose-dive indicated that a violent gust of wind within a thundercloud may have flipped the airliner over, throwing it into a fatal dive. Although modern jets can usually fly through storm clouds, storms in Africa are particularly violent at this time of the year, investigators said. 

The location of the wreckage also indicates the pilot was maneuvering at the time, banking sharply to the right. This would have exposed the raised left wing to the gust, investigators said. 

The low altitude, would have made it impossible to recover from the resulting dive. 

Investigators said they cannot yet discount other factors, including mechanical failure, pilot disorientation or even sabotage. But no sign of a blast or fire has been found so far by the search teams, which include seven experts from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and two Boeing representatives. 

Investigators say it will likely take months to collect and analyze the evidence. They said a final report on the crash would probably not be completed this year.


----------



## SE9

*Korea and Kenya reach Open Skies Agreement* 

*Korea to grow trade with Kenya and Africa with aviation deal*

_Written by Wangui Maina 
14-May-2007_

Kenya and South Korea’s recent “open skies” aviation agreement could be a stepping stone for the East Asian country to make moves into Africa as its neighbours, Japan and China, have done.

The agreement allows Korean airlines to fly into Kenya and vice versa. Currently, the nation’s flagship carrier, Korean Air, does not fly into the country but code shares with Kenya Airways (KQ), allowing passengers to reach Seoul from Nairobi, via a third destination served by both airlines.

Open skies agreements, which can be bilateral or involve multiple partners, are meant to liberalise the often heavily nationalistic and regulated rules for international aviation between countries. The deal should minimise government intervention on issues of passengers, cargo and the number of scheduled flights. 

The international Air Transportation Competition Act of 1979 heralded the era of Open Skies in international aviation. 

The agreement between allows for unlimited cargo and passenger movement between the two countries. However according to the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Transport, Gerishon Ikiara, connecting flight rights to carry on to a third destination, were not included in the deal. 

That means that, for example, Korean Air cannot fly into Nairobi, then on to Johannesberg, under this deal.

“If they wished to fly to another destination from Kenya, authority would have to be negotiated,” added Mr Ikiara. In Africa, South Korea has rights to fly into Egypt only. 

Officials from Seoul, the Korean capital, said the agreement would allow their airlines greater access to Africa, which they are eying as a region of potential growth. In a statement issued by the South Korean Ministry of Construction and Transportation, the deal would open up more trade opportunities for the two countries. 

Several South Korean companies already operate in Kenya, and the country is known for making cars such as Hyundai, and electronic brands like Samsung and Daewoo.

According to Mr Ikiara, Kenya could benefit from technical expertise of Korea — Asia’s third largest economy after Japan and China — as the deal will allow for more technical and training corporation between the two countries.

Some are viewing a less high-handed motivation in the deal, as Kenya pledged to support Korea’s bid to gain a seat on the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) board in September, when the United Nations air travel body holds board member elections.

Korean Air, the largest airline in Korea, has been voted as one of the best in the world in categories such as service quality. And Seoul’s biggest airport, Incheon International, is one of the biggest, and the sixth busiest hub in Asia. A 2006 survey conducted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) ranked Incheon one of the world’s best airports.

In January, South Korea signed an open skies agreement with Malaysia. Open skies deals have gained momentum in the industry recently, as airlines have pushed for less regulation and more open competition. 

The recent agreement inked between the US and EU countries is seen as a landmark in such deals. 
The open skies agreement removed barriers and allowed airlines, for the first time, to offer service from any city in the EU bloc to any US city and vice versa, with no restrictions on the number of flights, aircraft used or routes. 

In most cases, government-to-government bilateral agreements often limit where international carriers fly, the number of flights they can schedule and even the fares they can charge.


----------



## SE9

*Virgin Atlantic arrives at Nairobi today*
_

Story by PAUL REDFERN, Nation Correspondent in London
Publication Date: 6/2/2007_

Virgin Atlantic’s inaugural flight to Nairobi from London is due to touch down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) this morning. The A340-300 Airbus, carrying international journalists on a brief weekend visit to Nairobi, will be the first of regular daily flights between London’s Heathrow airport and JKIA, and will add competition to the services already offered by British Airways and Kenya Airways (KQ). 

Sir Richard Branson, the chairman of Virgin Atlantic and head of the Virgin Group of Companies will be aboard the airline’s inaugural flight that arrives today.

He will join Vice President Moody Awori and Transport minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere at a Press conference called to mark the launch of Virgin Atlantic flights in Kenya, at the airport.

A statement said the conference will link the arrival of Virgin to tourism and the economy

Tourism experts believe the extra capacity is needed, as Kenya continues to see a rapid growth in UK tourist numbers. The UK accounts for among the largest number of European tourists that visit Kenya each year. The latest statistics for February of this year continue to show a rising trend in UK arrivals, with 16,779 Britons visiting, an increase of over 20 per cent on the previous February. 

Overall, 2006 saw another increase in UK arrivals with 171,409 arrivals from the UK a near 11 per cent increase on 2005. 

*Potential*

The new travel focus tends to be on safaris and eco-tourism lodges, highlighting the need for extra capacity at Nairobi rather than Mombasa. 

Virgin will offer a full range of services on its flights, from the upper class option featuring flat beds and a private massage zone, to an economy class offering that provides seat back televisions for all passengers and video on demand. 

One key result of the new competition could be a lowering of prices between London and Nairobi but Virgin Atlantic clearly feels there is enormous potential for growth in its new route. Announcing the launch last year, Virgin chairman Sir Richard Branson said Nairobi was Virgin Atlantics fourth service to its Africa routes which were expanding at a vast rate.

“Passenger numbers have doubled over the past five years and we predict its popularity will continue to grow in years to come.” 

The flights start at Heathrow at 19.15 and arrive at 6.05 the next day.

Return flights depart at 08.20 and arrive at London Heathrow at 14.55. 

Kenya’s Tourism ministry has been making efforts to persuade Virgin Atlantic to start its flights to Nairobi for some time. Permanent Secretary Rebecca Nabutola said that Virgin offered “quality and high standards” and was “one of the worlds premier airlines.”


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## SE9

*Virgin Atlantic’s arrival heralds fare cuts (London - Nairobi)*

_JOHN KARIUKI
Special Correspondent_

Air fares on the Nairobi-London route dropped last week as major carriers reacted to the entry of Virgin Airlines into Kenya’s most lucrative travel route.

Kenya Airways (KQ) cut its fares from $699 to $550, to go level with Virgin’s while British Airways (BA) was down to $549. And in an unexpected nervous shift, BA offered a seat auction which was mostly significant for its timing. 

“There have been online ticket auctions in the past but this is a clear reaction to Virgin’s entry,” said a senior manager with a Nairobi travel company.

Other airlines with indirect Nairobi-London routes have also lowered fares with Emirates down to $550, Qatar $450, Ethiopian Airways $ 470 — all on return flights.

The reduction has been expected ever since Virgin announced entry into the route but industry sources still expressed surprise. Industry analysts predict a further drop as the current high season slows down.

“Virgin put their timing to coincide with the high season; the real pricing war will kick off later in the low season,” said Dodo World travel company’s Bob Inyangula.

Travel analysts say the fare could stabilise at the current level but see it dropping further to an average $400 return. 

According to the Kenya Tourist Board, there has been a consistent growth of the passenger load on the Nairobi-London route. Last year, the figure stood at 171,406 passengers, an 11 per cent growth over 2006 while provisional figures for this year, as at February, were 16,779 — a 20 per cent growth over the same period last year. The number is expected to grow significantly by the end of the year. But at the start, Virgin will have to compete with KQ and BA for the lucrative London direct route.

The initial view was that KQ would be hardest hit by the new arrival, but so far indications from major travel companies show Virgin eating more into the share of BA than that of KQ — indeed, the Kenya national carrier may not be that adversely affected after all.

“It is a strong brand and I notice a strong sense of patriotism among Kenyan travellers who are choosing to fly KQ as long as it is available,” said Mr Inyangula.

Marketing manager of Fly Air, Rose Kavaya, supports this view. She said there were more bookings for Kenya Airways in the past week as Kenyans appear to rally to support the national carrier.

Previously, this element of belonging has worked in favour of British Airways, but it may now have to share passengers with Virgin Airlines as they are both from the same country.

“Both are good brands, but Virgin has a greater allure for quality and has a big name internationally that will certainly help swing clients in its favour,” said Suresh Raman, managing director of Somak Travel.

Some in the industry see the swing in the Virgin versus BA rivalry go to Virgin due to the better refined leisure inclination it is known for.

However, the flights schedule are likely to be a strong factor in favour of BA and KQ as they both have day and nights flights. Bookings are notably higher for night flights due to the greater convenience it offers for especially business travellers on a short turnaround trip.

“A day flight means a hotel night that could be avoided by a traveller going to London for a day’s business. In such cases, travellers want to arrive in London in the morning, attend to their business and travel back in the evening — which saves time and cuts hotel costs,” said Mr Raman.

He said that people who are pressed for time are more likely to choose BA or KQ. Virgin flights leave Heathrow at 1915 and arrive at 0605 the next day. Return flights depart from Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 0820 and arrive at Heathrow at 1455.

The onward connection point to the United States and other parts of Europe has been thought to favour the two British carriers but local analysts see clear advantages for KQ over the two rival airlines who connect from Heathrow or Gatwick in London while KQ uses Amsterdam.

According to travel agents who spoke to The EastAfrican, most African travellers would rather avoid the stringent security checks in the UK that many consider cumbersome and even hostile. They prefer to fly KQ and connect to US and other overseas destinations via Amsterdam which many consider a lot more friendly, Ms Kavaya said.

Most travel agents also said that the short-lived visa requirement for transit travellers connecting through UK airports has worked against the British carriers in favour of KQ. 

“Many travellers have not realised that it was withdrawn and others simply do not care and just want to avoid UK airports altogether,” said Mr Inyangula.

Even as the airlines fight for market share, relations with travel companies over commissions are a crucial factor for walk-in clients.

Currently, Virgin is offering a nine per cent commission to agents while KQ gives six. But BA is on a zero commission policy, which has forced travel companies to put a mark up on the published fare.

“It has created an inconvenience for travel agents having to explain to clients that they have to pay a service charge on top of the published fare,” said Mr Inyangula.

However, travel agents agree that the zero commission rate is the way all airlines will go and agents will have to find a way to justify their mark up to stay in business.

“Survival in this business will depend on adding value,” Mr Raman said. 

This will include extras like airport transfers and other services.


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## SE9

*Chinese airlines to seek KQ partnership*

_By Brian Adero_

Chinese aviation officials say they want their airlines to partner with Kenya Airways (KQ) on direct flights from Kenya to their country. Mr Yang Guoqing, the deputy minister in-charge of China Civil Aviation, says that due to KQ’s wider spread in terms of market expansion, they have identified the national carrier as a strong airline in Africa worth working with.

He said that although China signed a Bilateral Air Service Agreement (Basa) with Kenya three years ago, there is no need for airlines from China to launch direct flights to Nairobi. "Though the agreement allows airlines from both countries to operate between us, we want our airlines to work with KQ," he said.

He spoke during a visit by a Chinese aviation delegation to Transport minister, Mr Chirau Ali Mwakwere, on Thursday.

KQ flies four times a week to Guangzhou, China. Guoqing said that during an earlier visit to KQ’s Embakasi headquarters, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Titus Naikuni, had talked of KQ’s intention to expand to other parts in China.

With more than 30 airlines serving both domestic and International routes, China’s aviation market is dominated by Air China based in Guangzhou, China Eastern based in Shanghai and China Southern based in Guangzhou.

Guoquing is optimistic that China Southern, which is based in Guangzhou, could soon sign a joint venture with KQ, which will make a lot of contribution to the existing agreements between the two airlines.

Mwakwere assured the delegation that Kenya has made a lot of effort in meeting international aviation standards, which has made Nairobi one of the leading aviation hubs in Africa.


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## SE9

*Boeing, Kenya Airways Celebrate Opening of Leadership Center*

*-- Kenya Airways Launches 'The Pride Centre' in Nairobi to Offer Training and Leadership Development*
_July 30, 2007: 06:01 PM EST_

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Representatives from Boeing and Kenya Airways were on hand this past Thursday to mark the launch of the airline's new training and leadership facility named "The Pride Centre."

Located just outside the Kenyan capital, the newly refurbished facility was purchased by Kenya Airways in 2005 and modeled on Boeing's Leadership Center in St. Louis. A Kenya Airways fact-finding team recently visited Boeing's training facility and Rolls-Royce's Training Centre located just outside its headquarters in Derby, UK. Boeing has consulted with the airline on The Pride Centre's design and layout and is currently working with Kenya Airways' management on course development and exploring opportunities for future on-site training.

Lee Monson, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of Sales for the Middle East and Africa, was invited as the honored guest at Kenya Airways' inaugural ceremony for The Pride Centre.

"Leadership development is important to Boeing's strategy for continued success," Monson said. "It's rewarding to work with an airline customer that shares an ideology to invest in human resources and is working to develop future leaders -- not just for its own company, but also to the benefit of the entire Kenyan business enterprise."

Beyond airline-specific training tools, such as 787 door trainers that will be installed in 2008, The Pride Centre will serve to develop skill sets at the managerial and executive level through specialized course training based on proven leadership attributes.

Kenya Airways' Managing Director and CEO Titus Naikuni has been a driving force in the airline's strategy to enhance Kenya's infrastructure on a multitude of levels.

"The opening of The Pride Centre is another milestone event for Kenya Airways as we work towards building a more successful tomorrow for the airline and for Kenya as a whole," Naikuni said. "We appreciate Boeing's commitment to our working relationship and value their participation in helping make this training and leadership centre a regional success in East Africa."


----------



## SE9

*Emirates plans 17 weekly flights to Nairobi*

_By Chris Mburu_

Emirates Airlines has notified Kenyan aviation authorities plans to introduce extra three weekly flights from Dubai to Nairobi.

The Middle East Carrier operates a daily evening and day flight to Nairobi, and the new flights would raise the weekly schedules to 17 per week.

But, plans to introduce Dubai-Mombasa flights have been suspended.

The new flights make Emirates the leading foreign operator to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and marks the continued dominance of the airline on Kenya to Middle East routes. Kenya Airways operates a daily flight to Dubai.

Emirates General Manager for East Africa, Mr Ali Al Shamsi, says arrival and departure times of the new flights will be announced later. "We are yet to decide whether to operate the new flights directly or to mount a joint operation through Kampala and Dar es Salaam," he said.

Aviation officials at the Ministry of Transport and Kenya Civil Aviation Authority say the current Bilateral Air Service Agreement between Dubai and Kenya allows for unlimited number of frequencies between Nairobi and Dubai.

Emirates has been flying to Kenya for the last 12 years.

"Outbound load factors from Nairobi are extremely healthy. From three flights a week some years ago, Emirates today enjoys a double daily service between Nairobi and Dubai," he said.

Uganda and Tanzania each have a daily, direct service from Dubai, up from four flights a week four years ago.

"On these routes we operate the Airbus A330-200 aircraft with industry leading features. Last year we registered a 50 per cent revenue growth on our Dar-es-Salaam route and a 40 per cent increase in Entebbe services," Al Shamshi said in an interview.

In October 2004, the airline started a once a weekly freighter service from Nairobi to Amsterdam via Dubai using a Boeing 747-400F offering 110 tonnes of cargo capacity.

The service - Emirates SkyCargo’s first African freighter route – was increased to twice weekly because of increased demand.

"Kenya is the world’s leading horticulture producer, particularly for cut-flowers. Emirates believes that the load factors will continue to grow over time as the potential of East African economies maintain an upswing. We look at Kenya as a high potential area for both passenger and cargo traffic," Al Shamshi said.


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## SE9

*Afriqiyah (Libya) to fly to Nairobi*

_Cyrus Kinyungu in Tripoli, Libya_

A Libyan Airline has announced plans to commence flights from Tripoli to Nairobi beginning next year.

Afriqiyah Airways, which is a major airline in North Africa, announced that plans were at an advanced stage to commence the flight connecting Tripoli and East Africa.
"We are at a very advanced stage on starting operations in Kenya. We are currently limited because of the number of aircraft we own," said the airline’s Operations Director, Captain Ahmed Bukshem.

"The need to connect Africa with the rest of the world is our priority. In the next few years we will see this happen," he said adding they also intended to go to Southern Africa.

He said studies to establish the viability of the route is currently underway adding a team will later tour the country to negotiate with Kenya civil Aviation Authority on the operations.

He said the airline could commence flights after October subject to delivery of new jets.

Bukshem said the airline operates a fleet of six leased aircraft, but 23 new jets had been ordered.

He was speaking in Tripoli during the launch of an Airbus A320, the first that the country purchased since the embargo on trade was lifted.

Afriqiyah Airways, which was started in 2001, became the first beneficiary of the lifting of the trade embargo which has been in place for over 16 years after it ordered a fleet of the airbus aircraft family worth $2.8 billion to be supplied over the next 10 years.

‘‘With the lifting of the embargo, Afriqiyah has ordered 23 jets from the airbus family, which range from A320 to the A350 to be supplied within the next decade,’’ said Bukshem.

The airline previously operated a fleet of six leased aircraft due to the embargo. The fleet modernisation, said the airline’s commercial Director, Mr Rammah Ettir, will see the airline become the first carrier in the continent to operate the modern A350 model. The new A 320 has upgrades in environmental and flight controls.

Ettir said passengers in the new jet will enjoy other luxurious additions.

The new developments in Afriqiyah Airways are significant to Kenya considering the agreements entered between Kenya and Libya recently.

In June, President Kibaki paid a visit to Libyan leader, Colonel Muamar Gadaffi and among other issues the duo agreed to start flights between the two nations.

‘‘The Bilateral Air Services Agreement between the two leaders establishes air services between the two states and enables the designated airlines of both countries to commence scheduled commercial flights,’’ said Bukshem.

The two also signed another agreement seeking to promote and facilitate bilateral trade between the two nations.


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## hkskyline

*West Africa group plans African regional airline *

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 19 (Reuters) - A West African group plans to launch an airline to help fill in route gaps left by problems at regional state-owned airlines, before expanding to the rest of the continent, an official said on Wednesday. 

The Togolese-based SPCAR -- Regional Airline Promotion Company -- hopes to unveil the new airline at the end of October, with operations targeted to begin in the first quarter of 2008, its chairman Gervais Djondo told reporters in Johannesburg. 

The company has embarked on roadshow to attract investment for the $200 million project, which Djondo said was meant to plug a gap in Africa's air travel market, currently largely serviced by European airlines. 

"After the collapse of different airlines in West Africa ... there was this gap that was created by the collapse of these companies and something needed to be done to fill this gap," he said, adding travellers sometimes needed to go through Europe to get to other African countries. 

"Some of the European airlines make about 75 to 80 percent or even 90 percent of their profit from Africa," he said, speaking through an interpreter. 

Officials say problems at Nigeria Airways, Ghana Airways, Air Afrique and Cameroon Airlines amid a series of air crashes in the region, had left a gap in the West African market. 

SPCAR is owned by Ecobank, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) and the West African Development Bank.

But Djondo said the airline would remain privately-owned. 

"After careful analysis of what led to the collapse of these airlines... we came to the conclusion that there is a need to set up a regional airline that is not state controlled because most of them were owned by national governments," he said. 

The new airline, the name of which would be announced at its launch, would initially ply routes in West Africa before moving to the rest of the continent, and further afield. 

It would initially offer mainly passenger services but would also later look at the lucrative freight market. 

In the first year of operation the airline would lease aircraft not more than five-years-old, to counter the continent's poor air safety record. 

Africa accounted for nearly a fifth of fatal airliner accidents last year, despite having only 3 percent of global flight departures, according to the Dutch-based Aviation Safety Network.


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## GregPz

Africa's 10 busiest airports as of June 2007 - Generally very strong growth!

1. JOHANNESBURG, ZA	18 410 000 +11.2%
2. CAIRO, EG	11 372 000 +10.1
3. CAPETOWN, ZA	7 807 000 +12.3
4. SHARM EL SHEIKH	5 461 000 +15.6
5. HURGADA, EG	5 288 000 +15.2
6. CASABLANCA, MA	5 269 000 +12.9
7. NAIROBI, KE	4 586 000 +4.8
8. DURBAN, ZA	4 471 000 +17.8
9. LAGOS, NG	4 345 000 +14.2
10.MONASTIR, TN	4 272 000 +3.2

Source: ACI Monthly report


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## hkskyline

*BA to end London-Harare flights *

HARARE, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - British Airways is to halt direct flights between Harare and London next month as the route is no longer profitable, an airline official said on Thursday. 

BA's regional commercial manager Steve Harrison told the official New ZIANA news agency that the last flight on the London Heathrow-Harare route would be on October 28. 

"The route between Harare and Heathrow has been making a considerable loss over the past few weeks," Harrison was quoted as saying. 

"We operate in a highly competitive global market and cannot afford to sustain the losses on the Harare route any longer." 

British Airways follows a number of international airlines that have pulled out of the Zimbabwe route such as Swiss Air, Lufthansa, KLM, and Air France. 

Harrrison said that passengers who had already booked flights would be booked on alternative flights or reimbursed. 

Zimbabwe is in the throes of economic crisis characterised by world-record inflation, more than 80 percent joblessness and chronic shortages of foreign currency and fuel. 

The tourism industry, once a mainstay of the economy, has shrunk drastically over the past seven years since Zimbabwe embarked on a controversial programme to seize farms owned by the minority white population. 

President Robert Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has blamed Zimbabwe's economic woes on the former colonial power Britain.


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## hkskyline

*Struggling African airlines urged to cooperate to survive *

NAIROBI, Oct 16, 2007 (AFP) - Struggling African airlines should cooperate to survive against fierce competition from international carriers, notably from Asia and the Middle East, the industry warned Tuesday. 

African Airline Service chief Nick Fadugba said the airlines must explore mergers, acquisitions and takeovers to strengthen their standing in the market. 

Fadugba said the continental airlines, which account for three percent of world aircraft departures, should consider mergers to improve their capital base and maintain their position in the competitive aviation sector. 

"African governments and airlines have to consolidate within the continent and not allow the African market to be totally dominated by non-African carriers," he told reporters in Nairobi. 

Of the continental carriers, Kenya Airways, Mauritius Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Egypt Air, Royal Air Maroc and South African Airways are the few profitable airlines and can fly to several international destinations. 

The rest have been hampered by a combination of losses and poor safety records, compounded by poor maintenance, ageing charter fleets, untrained crews and the illegal movement of aircraft in war-torn countries, according to the African Airlines Association (AFRAA). 

In September, AFRAA called for a code of conduct to regulate a crippling flow of pilots from African airlines to richer and more established ones elsewhere. 

Aviation experts have warned of a shortage of pilots in the region owing to rapid traffic growth in Asia and the Middle East and the surge of lucrative low-cost carriers notably in Europe and Asia. 

They say demand for African pilots will increase in the coming decade because of the air industry's growth in emerging powerhouses India and China. 

Fadugba said the exodus of pilots has had an impact on the performance of the sector. 

"The brain drain in Africa is alarming. Many airlines from the Middle East are poaching pilots (because) they have a lot of money in their back pockets," he said ahead of the 16th Annual African Aviation Finance Conference to be held in Nairobi next month. 

Kenya Airways chief Titus Naikuni called on African governments to allow the private sector to privatise their national carriers or have a hand in their operations to boost growth. 

Kenya Airways, which now flies some 36 routes around the world, is 26-percent owned by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.


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## hkskyline

*Air Uganda opens flights to Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania *

KAMPALA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A new Ugandan airline started flights on Thursday to Tanzania, South Sudan and Kenya's capital Nairobi -- opening up competition on a route long monopolised by Kenya Airways , its commercial director said. 

Speaking by telephone from Uganda's Entebbe airport as the privately owned airline's first Nairobi return flight touched down, Vittorio Scabbia said it would target executives. 

"We are looking at business people. Each aircraft has 12 business class seats and 85 economy ... We expect 60 percent capacity within the first six months," he told Reuters. 

The company had bought two Boeing DC9-32 jet planes, which Scabbia said were more than enough to cover its proposed routes. 

The airline has scheduled two daily return flights to Nairobi, three flights a week to the South Sudanese capital Juba, and four flights to Dar es Salaam, two of them via Tanzania's tourist destination Mount Kilimanjaro. 

The company will buy Boeing MD-87 aircraft at the end of March, he added, although the number has not yet been decided. 

Kenya Airways, which flies from Entebbe to Nairobi four times daily, has enjoyed a monopoly on the route since the demise of the state-owned Uganda Airlines in 2001, after a botched privatisation following years of mismanagement. 

Two small airlines, Eagle Air and Dairo Air, already fly from Entebbe to Juba. Air Tanzania and Precision Airlines fly to Dar es Salaam. 

Air Uganda is owned by the wealthy Aga Khan's group of companies. Scabbia said it may list some shares publicly, but not now. "First, we need to perform well." (Editing by Daniel Wallis; editing by Sue Thomas)


----------



## hkskyline

*Zambian Airways to stop flights to Zimbabwe *

HARARE, Nov 26, 2007 (AFP) - Zambian Airways is to halt direct flights between Harare and Lusaka next month as the route is no longer profitable, an airline official said on Monday. 

Zambian Airways chief executive officer Mutembo Nchito said the last flight on the Harare-Lusaka route will be on November 30. 

"Zambia Airways regrets to advise the general public that it will be suspending its daily services between Lusaka and Harare from December 1, 2007 because of continuing operational challenges on the route caused by high fuel costs and extreme currency fluctuations in Zimbabwe," Nchito said in a statement. 

"This is a commercial decision that we have taken after reviewing the performance of the Lusaka-Harare route for some months. Regrettably, we see no prospect of improvement in the immediate future, and we have been forced to act this way." 

Zambian Airways' decision follows that of a number of international airlines that have pulled out of the Zimbabwe route such as British Airways, Swiss Air, Lufthansa, KLM, and Air France. 

Nchito said customers who are booked for travel between Lusaka and Harare after December 1 will be offered alternative flight arrangements or a full refund on their tickets. 

The southern African nation of Zimbabwe is in the throes of economic crisis characterised by world-record inflation, more than 80 percent joblessness and chronic shortages of foreign currency and fuel. 

The tourism industry, once a mainstay of the economy, has shrunk drastically over the past seven years since Zimbabwe embarked on a controversial programme to seize farms owned by the minority white population. 

President Robert Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has blamed Zimbabwe's economic woes on former colonial power Britain and its Western allies.


----------



## hkskyline

*Airline fees doubled, black market dominates in Zimbabwe *
3 December 2007

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - The state airline doubled its fares Monday and the cost of a new Zimbabwe passport went up thirty fold. 

Spiraling prices also saw restaurant and bar prices double over the weekend, and prices were sometimes raised during a restaurant meal. 

Waitresses in a sports club advised patrons to place their orders before a price hike came into force an hour later and some restaurants began accepting American currency as chronic shortages of local cash worsened. 

A new spate of price increases in the crumbling economy dealt a further blow to official efforts to combat black market dealing in money and goods and left Zimbabweans facing the reality of living in a U.S. "dollarized" world as their own currency slumped in value. 

In a statement to travel agents, Air Zimbabwe said Monday a round trip to London doubled to 804 million Zimbabwe dollars, about US$400 (euro272) at the dominant black market exchange rate or a massive US$ 27,000 (euro18,365) at the obsolete official exchange rate of 30,000-1. 

The central bank has not officially devalued the local currency but has said imported luxuries for the upcoming Christmas period can be sold at an exchange rate equivalent of 850,000-1, less than half the black market rate. 

That pricing would be monitored by government price control inspectors, making imports available only at a loss to businesses already battling to stay viable. 

Notices in the Harare passport office Monday showed a range of higher costs from immediate effect in local currency for passports and other documents. 

A regular passport went up thirty fold and passports were also being issued in a "fast track" service over several days for US$220 (euro150) in American bills. 

Official inflation in October was given nearly 8,000 percent, by far the highest in the world. Independent finance houses estimate real inflation stands closer to 40,000 percent and the International Monetary Fund has forecast it reaching 100,000 percent by the end of the year. 

After an absence of five months, cigarettes have reappeared in stores after the price doubled to about 50 U.S. cents (34 euro cents) a pack, still among the cheapest tobacco products in the world at the black market exchange rate, but the most expensive at US$40 (euro28) a pack at the government's official exchange rate. 

A senior teacher earns about the equivalent of US$10 (euro7) a month at the unofficial exchange rate. 

Until disruptions to the agriculture-based economy began with the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms in 2000, Zimbabwe was the world's second largest tobacco exporter after Brazil. 

With price increases Monday, local beer was catching up with international prices of up to US$3 (euro2) a bottle. 

According to additional independent estimates, inflation last month exceeded 70,000 percent for upper income Zimbabweans who travel, use mobile phones and e-mail and buy scarce gasoline, car spares, computer accessories and luxuries such as liquor and restaurant meals.


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## hkskyline

*Nigeria says to reopen oil hub airport on Dec. 18 *

LAGOS, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The main airport serving the oil-producing Niger Delta in southern Nigeria will reopen for daytime domestic flights on Dec. 18, officials said on Monday, two years after a plane crashed trying to land there. 

The international airport at Port Harcourt, the delta's main city and oil hub where foreign companies including Royal Dutch Shell have offices, was closed in August 2006. 

The crash during a storm on Dec. 10, 2005, killed 106 people half of whom were school children on their way home for Christmas. An official report said the runway lights were off due to a power cut and the plane burnt on the ground because there was no functioning fire-fighting equipment. 

The airport closure was due to last four months and enable the aviation agency to repair the runway and build a perimeter fence, among other improvements. But work has progressed slowly and is yet to be completed. 

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said the runway has now been fully refurbished while work on the terminal building was 70 percent complete. The lights and firefighting equipment are also being overhauled, it said in a statement. 

"I have just approved the release of more funds for the due completion of all civil works at the Port Harcourt International Airport," FAAN managing director Richard Aisuebeogun said. 

The airport will operate only daytime local flights until early next year when it will ready for international and night-time flights, the agency said. Before the closure, Air France and Lufthansa used to fly there. 

The crash two years ago came seven weeks after another domestic flight had crashed near Lagos, killing 117 people. The government responded by grounding several domestic carriers and promising swift reforms and investment in aviation. 

But 10 months later another domestic flight crashed just after taking off from Abuja. That disaster killed 99 people including the spiritual leader of Nigeria's Muslims.


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## hkskyline

*Africa to shore up troubled aviation watchdog: ministers *

LIBREVILLE, Dec 15, 2007 (AFP) - African ministers Saturday underscored their commitment to a continental aviation watchdog that has been in crisis since the threatened pullout of two member states. 

The ministerial committee of the Agency for the Security of Navigation in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA) also announced in a statement it would "put in place a mechanism for the prevention and management of crises, notably institutional ones," following a two-day meeting in Gabon. 

In October, Madagascar threatened to quit the 48-year-old organisation. It subsequently said it would review its decision but has yet to issue a definite answer. 

After threatening a similar pullout in November, Dakar said it was "suspending" that move and called for an audit before reaching a final decision. 

The committee bowed to the audit call, even as it urged in its statement for Senegal's "definitive return to the heart of the community" and for Madagascar to revise its position. 

Founded in 1959, ASECNA oversees traffic across an airspace which is 1.5 times bigger than Europe. It also supervises take-offs and landings at 27 airports on the continent. 

While Africa accounts for just three percent of world aircraft departures, it tops the list in air mishaps. It accounted for 28 percent of all fatal aviation accidents in 2003, the last year for which comprehensive statistics are available. 

Member nations include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Comoros Islands, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo as well as France which has overseas territories off the coast of Africa. 

Mali and the Central African Republic previously have withdrawn from the organisation in the past but then rejoined it.


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## hkskyline

*Airliners collide at Khartoum without causing injuries: official *

KHARTOUM, Dec 23, 2007 (AFP) - Two passenger airliners collided while taxiing at Khartoum international airport on Sunday without causing any injuries, an airport official said. 

The wing of an EgyptAir plane that was preparing to take off hit the back of a Saudia aircraft causing damage but no injuries, airport director Yussef Ibrahim told the official SUNA news agency. 

Passengers returning from the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca had just disembarked from the Saudi plane when it was hit. 

The airport remained open following the accident and the two planes were being repaired. 

Two people were killed at Khartoum airport in November when a cargo plane skidded off the runway after making an emergency landing.


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## dysan1

anyone have the updated airline stats for african airports? we get them for South Africa, but was wondering if someone has for the rest of the continent including us


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## grjplanes

We haven't really received any South African stats for a long time now...and even on ACSA's website it stagnated at August.


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## dysan1

^^ normally greg is our man, but he's been globe hopping and had no time for us "little" people


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## GregPz

Ha ha... I'll see what I can find. Still trying to catch up at work, dealing with a mountain of papers and emails.


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## GregPz

Ok here's Africa's top 40 as at August 2007 (Source ACI). Figures are number of 1000 pax for Sep06-Aug07 (1 year).

1	JOHANNESBURG, ZA	18 858 12.2%
2	CAIRO, EG	11 684 11.2%
3	CAPETOWN, ZA	8 045 15.0%
4	SHARM EL SHEIKH	5 680 18.8%
5	HURGADA, EG	5 479 19.0%
6	CASABLANCA, MA	5 474 14.3%
7	NAIROBI, KE	4 686 6.9%
8	DURBAN, ZA	4 629 19.6% 
9	LAGOS, NG	4 474 19.3%
10	MONASTIR, TN	4 286 3.3%
11	TUNIS, TN	3 873 6.4%
12	ALGIERS, DZ	3 696 7.1%
13	MARRAKECH, MA	3 096 18.9%
14	ADDIS ABABA, ET	2 669 27.3%
15	JERBA, TN	2 597 6.8%
16	MAURITIUS, MU	2 474 12.9%
17	ABUJA, NG	2 122 5.7%
18	LUXOR, EG	1 998 -1.4%
19	ST DENIS-GILLOT, RE	1 516 6.0%
20	AGADIR, MA	1 494 7.9%
21	PORT ELIZABETH, ZA	1 477 5.9%
22	DAR ES SALAAM, TZ	1 401 18.1%
23	MOMBASA, KE	1 307 13.4%
24	LUANDA, AO	1 240 21.9%
25	ACCRA, GH	1 139 12.8%
26	ASWAN, EG	899 -0.2%
27	ABIDJAN, CI	893 12.1%
28	ENTEBBE, UG	810 21.2%
29	ANTANANARIVO, MG	785 10.1%
30	EAST LONDON, ZA	738 16.8%
31	ILHA DO SAL, CV	735 -10.1%
32	LUSAKA, ZM	697 34.5%
33	HARARE, ZW	693 15.7%
34	WINDHOEK, NA	687 12.5%
35	MAPUTO, MZ	673 13.8%
36	ALEXANDRIA, EG	673 26.5%
37	BRAZZAVILLE, CG	663 11.0%
38	LIBREVILLE, GA	651 6.3%
39	GEORGE, ZA	629 6.0%
40	DOUALA, CM	592 9.4%

Note: Ranking excludes Dakar (approx 1 700) and Oran (approx. 900) as no current stats available.


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## GregPz

These are the airports that have shown the biggest increase in pax from Dec06-Aug07 (9 months). This ranking doesn't indicate the % increase but rather the increase in the actual number of passengers. Notice how this ranking differs from the total pax list.

1. Johannesburg 1,525,000 more passengers since Dec06
2. Cairo 906,000
3. Cape Town 820,000
4. Hurgada 647,000
5. Sharm el Sheikh 631,000
6. Durban 600,000
7. Casablanca 509,000
8. Lagos 465,000
9. Marrakech 448,000
10. Addis Ababa 429,000
11. Mauritius 257,000
12. Nairobi 237,000
13. Algiers 213,000
14. Tunis 161,000
15. Dar es Salaam 156,000


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## GregPz

And this is how the list will look at the end of 2007 if the same growth continued into the 4th quarter.

1	JOHANNESBURG, ZA	19 579
2	CAIRO, EG	11 966
3	CAPETOWN, ZA	8 404
4	SHARM EL SHEIKH	6 028
5	HURGADA, EG	5 804
6	CASABLANCA, MA	5 700
7	DURBAN, ZA	4 898
8	LAGOS, NG	4 880
9	NAIROBI, KE	4 766
10	MONASTIR, TN	4 383
11	TUNIS, TN	3 962
12	ALGIERS, DZ	3 746
13	MARRAKECH, MA	3 201
14	ADDIS ABABA	2 852
15	JERBA, TN	2 633


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## dysan1

awesome stuff thanx greggie.

We know how much of a big log mover Durban has been over the past few years (where was it sitting 4 years ago when we only had like 2m people)

But which others have raced up and those fallen off?

I see Durban and Lagos both continuing their big head upward, especially with the return of more international flights to Durban next year, and definately when the new airport opens.

Lagos must surely be growing from greater international flights correct? whats the nigerian domestic network like?

Joburg must be heading for 25 in the next few years, unless durban and ct start taking some international flights away, which is doubtful


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## GregPz

Africa's busiest airports as at Sep 07:


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## [email protected]

/\

Where's Tripoli? They also have more than 1.5 million annual passengers.


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## GregPz

Yes, you're right but there's no current stats available for Tripoli. Dakar is also missing. Both airports have between 1.5 and 2 million pax so they'd be 19th and 20th on the list.


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## GregPz

African airport ranking as of Oct 07


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## Lydon

Durban has overtaken Nairobi


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## Shezan

l tought JNB had more pax...


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## hkskyline

*Malawi puts state airline privatisation on hold *

LILONGWE, 28 (Reuters) - Malawi has put the privatisation of its state-owned airline on hold after failing to come to an agreement with the leading bidder, South Africa's Comair, Transport Minister Henry Mussa said on Monday. 

Malawi, one of Africa's poorest nations, was considering selling off the financially struggling Air Malawi as part of a drive to lessen the government's financial burden in key sectors, including transport and telecommunications. 

Comair, a partner of British Airways , emerged as the frontrunner to buy Air Malawi last year. 

"We rejected their bid because they were interested in taking over the whole company while we were only looking for a strategic partner to help us run the company," Mussa told Reuters. 

"We have decided to put the whole sale on hold until we have further consultation with other stakeholders." 

Malawi's trade unions have criticised the government's privatisation campaign, arguing that previous sales of state assets have led to job losses and failed to make companies profitable. 

The government, which decided to sell Air Malawi in 2000, said it is reevaluating its privatisation efforts. 

Established in 1967, Air Malawi has two Boeing aircraft and one other plane. Its international routes include flights to London, Johannesburg and several other cities.


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## spongeg

*Angola: New International Luanda Airport concluded in 2010*

*Angola: New International Luanda Airport concluded in 2010 *

Luanda, Angola, 24 Oct – The new International Luanda Airport, located 30 kilometres from the Angolan capital, to be built by China International Fund Limited, is due to be concluded in 2010, according to António Flores, of the national Reconstruction Office.

The new airport, which will cover Ana era of 5,000 hectares, will have two double runways, with the capacity to receive the world’s largest commercial airliner, the Airbus A380.

Flores said that, “when it is operational the northern runway will be 4,200 meters long, whilst the southern runway will be 3,800 metres long and both will be 60 metres wide each.” 

Flores also said that the runway was ready to receive the base layer and asphalt despite having some problems, "with expropriation of land belonging to 140 families living in the airport area."

Construction will also include a passenger terminal for national and international flights, a control tower and several hotels. 

In order to carry out the work, the Chinese construction company set up a concrete factory to produce up to 480 tonnes per hour. (macauhub) 

http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/news.php?ID=6287


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## hkskyline

*INTERVIEW-Ethiopian Airlines sets new fleet, sales targets *

PARIS, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Ethiopian Airlines is setting a new target of sales of "at least" $1.5 billion by 2015 after coming close to its achieving its 2010 aim of $1 billion sales this year, chief executive Girma Wake told Reuters on Thursday.

The airline is expanding even as its counterparts in more developed regions struggle to cope with the aftermath of a recent spike in oil prices, and the effects of a slowdown on business and leisure travel.

The state-owned carrier, which operates 27 aircraft on routes within Africa and to European, Asian, Middle Eastern and North American destinations, plans to expand its fleet to 45 aircraft by 2015.

Wake said the airline is considering ordering more Boeing Co. 787 aircraft, or A350 XWB aircraft made by EADS unit Airbus to supplement existing outstanding orders.

"We're discussing that with Airbus", he said.

It already has 10 Boeing Co . 787 aircraft on order, the first of which is now due to be delivered in December 2009, after supply chain problems delayed the programme by at least 16 months.

Wake, speaking on the sidelines of an aviation conference in Paris, said the airline wants to serve 75 destinations by 2015. It currently serves 53 destinations and plans to have 60 by 2010.

The global financial crisis may have a temporary negative effect on business, as tourists think twice before booking holidays, Wake said.

However, he added that "trade-led traffic and movement within Africa will continue - Africa is a vast continent."

The airline, which transported 2.5 million passengers in 2007/08 and thereby almost achieved its 2010 target of 3 million, now hopes to carry 5 million passengers in 2015, Wake said.

Ethiopian Airlines posted full-year sales of 9.2 billion birr ($941 million) for 2007/08.


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## hkskyline

*Downturn heralds hard times for Africa airlines: industry *
18 November 2008
Agence France Presse

African airlines face hard times as a global economic downturn could spur the industry's US and European giants to seek new markets on the continent, a pan-African body said Tuesday.

"With traffic in America and Europe decreasing, there will be fierce competition created in Africa as a result of more infiltration by foreign carriers," Christian Folly-Kossi, Security General of the African Airlines Association, told AFP on the sidelines of a meeting in Addis Ababa.

"Many African airlines will be at risk of disappearing because of competition. You can not put a heavyweight and a featherweight together in a boxing match," he explained.

Folly-Kossi said African carriers have already been affected, as several past agreements signed with Western counterparts had paved the way for a reduction of their market share in the continent's fledgling aviation industry.

"I am preaching more consolidation, more political support and protection from governments," he said.

In addition, soaring oil prices have compounded the industry's woes, Folly-Kossi said, as most carriers use obsolete and fuel-consuming fleets.

According to the London-based financial firm JP Morgan, the global airline industry will spend nearly 20 billion euros (25 billion dollars) more on fuel expenses in 2008 than in 2002.

While a downturn is expected for most African carriers, continental heavyweight Ethiopian Airlines is expecting a boom in revenue.

Ethiopia's flagship carrier generated 941 million dollars (743.3 million euros) during the 2007/2008 fiscal year, and is expecting the figure to rise to more than 1.2 billion dollars (948.2 billion euros) for the current year.

"For us, there has been a slight dip in imports and exports due to the financial crisis but we haven't been affected that much," Girma Wake, the company's CEO, told AFP.

Girma said he expected a tightening of loan availability and drop in tourism but predicted Ethiopian Airlines would survive better than others.

"It might be difficult for other African airlines but for us, the more flexibility we get the better. Liberalisation is very important for our programmes to succeed."


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## hkskyline

*Virgin Nigeria suspends flights to UK, S.Africa *

LAGOS, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Nigerian flag carrier Virgin Nigeria said on Saturday it was suspending its loss-making long haul flights to Britain and South Africa in order to focus on its domestic and regional operations within West Africa.

Industry sources said one of the airline's main financial backers, United Bank for Africa (UBA) , had been pushing for it to restructure and reduce losses on the competitive Lagos-London and Lagos-Johannesburg routes.

"The decision to suspend both services is to enable us to review our entire long haul operations," the company said in a statement.

"In the mean time, our focus is on consolidating and continuing to expand our profitable domestic and regional flight operations," it said.

The suspension will take effect from Jan. 27 and passengers booked on flights after that date would be transferred to other carriers.

Virgin Nigeria, in which British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic [VA.UL] has a 49 percent stake, was launched to great fanfare in 2005, bringing a credible national carrier to a country with an appalling air safety record.

Its routes to destinations within Africa's most populous nation and to neighbouring countries in West Africa remain profitable, and it has purchased several new Embraer aircraft to expand those services.

But it has struggled on the highly competitive London-Lagos route, using smaller aircraft than well-established rivals British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, and more recently facing competition from newcomer Arik Air's brand new fleet.

Industry experts expect growth in business travel, which accounts for a significant proportion of passengers on routes to and from Nigeria, to slow down significantly this year as the global economic downturn forces companies to tighten budgets.

Virgin Atlantic, which said last year it was in talks to divest some of its holding in the Nigerian carrier, said it was watching developments closely.

"We support Virgin Nigeria's decision to focus on its profitable domestic and regional operations and believe it can be even more successful as a result," Virgin Atlantic's communications director Paul Charles said.

"We remain in talks with interested parties about the divestment of a 42 percent stake," he said.


----------



## Shezan

*African Aviation News*

new A330-200 for Afriqiyah Airlines (Libya)



http://www.airliners.net/photo/Afri...40742/L/&sid=18791bf0c61399cec75a67303dae7dcf


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## ruifo

Nice thread! Keep it on and up!!


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## Shezan

let' s do it


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## Shezan

^^

Egyptair new Livery on the B777-300



http://images.google.it/imgres?imgu...w=127&prev=/images?q=egyptair&hl=it&sa=N&um=1


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## hkskyline

*Two hurt as UN plane crash lands in Darfur *
6 July 2009
Agence France Presse

The pilot and co-pilot of a UN-contracted plane were injured when their aircraft crash landed in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region on Monday, the UN said.

The Antonov 28 was bringing supplies to UN peacekeepers in the region when its nose wheel reportedly collapsed on landing at Saraf Omra in North Darfur, the UN said in a statement.

"A pilot and a co-pilot were injured. There were no fatalities. The incident is currently being investigated," it said.

The conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region erupted in February 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government and its militia allies, recruited among Arab tribesmen.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million fled their homes since the conflict erupted. Sudan puts the death toll at 10,000.


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## hkskyline

*Royal Air Maroc wants to open flight to Luanda: state media *
30 July 2009
Agence France Presse

Royal Air Maroc is finalising talks with Angola's government on a direct flight between the two countries, in the first air link between Luanda and north Africa, state media said Thursday.

Moroccan ambassador Mostafa Bouh told the official Angop news agency that a delegation from the airline had recently been in Luanda to put the finishing touches to a deal.

"We are hoping that the two parties will reach conclusions quickly to finalise this plan into order to facilitate a greater exchange between the two countries," he said.

Morocco opened its Angolan embassy in the 1980s and trains Angolans in a variety of specialities including engineering, agriculture, fisheries and medicine.

Reaching north Africa from Angola currently requires long transits through Ethiopia, Dubai or Europe.

Air travel to Luanda has boomed in recent years as Angola's oil industry has assumed greater global importance following the end of decades of civil war in 2002.

On Saturday, flag carrier TAAG is set to renew flights to former colonial power Portugal, after the European Commission partially lifted a ban on the airline over safety concerns.


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## nazrey

*Boeing Next-Generation 737s Expand Egyptair's Single-aisle Fleet *
August 07, 2009 11:21 AM 










Boeing and EgyptAir today announced that the airline has converted a 
previous order for two 777s into an order for an additional eight Next-
Generation 737-800s. The order was previously added to Boeing's Orders & 
Deliveries Web site attributed to an unidentified customer. Pic courtesy of 
Boeing Commercial Airplanes

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 (Bernama) -- Boeing and EgyptAir yesterday announced that the airline has converted a previous order for two 777s into an order for an additional eight Next-Generation 737-800s.

The order was added last week to Boeing's Orders & Deliveries Web site attributed to an unidentified customer.

The airline currently has seven 737-800s in operation and it is taking delivery of an additional five 737-800s this year, Boeing said in a statement.

The airline currently has five 777s in its fleet and is scheduled to receive six 777-300ERs beginning next year, it said.

"As a Star Alliance member, operating from a newly opened ultra-modern, international terminal at Cairo International Airport, we are pursuing a fleet plan that allows us to expand our regional markets and offer those passengers extensive international routing options," said EgyptAir Chairman Capt. Tawfik Assy.

"We've found the 737 performs exceptionally well in maintaining our scheduled flights to and from Cairo and that the 777 is unmatched in efficiency on our long-haul flights to our international destinations."

EgyptAir joined the Star Alliance in July 2008.

The carrier has been focused on increasing the utilisation of Cairo International Airport as a key regional hub for both passenger and air freight operations.

"EgyptAir's deployment of the 737 and 777 to meet its fleet growth plans shows how Boeing's product strategy is built upon providing unmatched reliability and efficiency across the product line," said Marty Bentrott, vice- president of Sales for the Middle East, Central and South Asia.

"Our airplanes are engineered to perform numerous types of missions within their size class, and EgyptAir has done a remarkable job utilising these airplanes, while streamlining its operations and bringing passengers notably improved services."

Boeing's 777 is the world's most successful and best-selling twin-engine, long-haul commercial jetliner with 60 customers and orders for 1,116 airplanes through the end of July 2009.

Since the 737 programme's inception, more than 250 customers have taken delivery of more than 6,000 airplanes, making it the most successful commercial airplane programme in history.

The Next-Generation 737, which entered service in 1998, currently has over 5,000 orders from more than 100 customers.

-- BERNAMA


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## hkskyline

777 to 737? 737 is a major short-haul workhorse and is favoured by the likes of Ryanair. Wonder if Egypt Air's strategy is moving into a shorter-haul model?


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## fieldsofdreams

Finally, after years of closure, you can post general aviation news from around Africa on this thread. I highly recommend, however, posting airport-specific and aviation-related updates in here if you cannot find the specific thread on the Thread Finder.


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## begtera




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## btrs

News from the DR Congo: Kin Air, which up until now only operated Beechcraft 1900D and Let 410 turboprops, will be adding its first Dash 8-100 soon:








DR Congo's Kin Avia secures first Dash 8-Q100


ch-aviation pro users have access to all exclusive ch-aviation news stories and any changes to airline route networks worldwide. If you are a ch-aviation pro user, please log in.




www.ch-aviation.com





Suprisingly, they also have a more or less decent website (with their fleet listing):




__





LA COMPAGNIE KIN AVIA – KIN AVIA







kinavia.com





If the photos on both websites are correct, it concerns this airframe (msn 038, ex-Titan Helicopters Group, ex-Summit Air, ex-reg C-FASC):


https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/de-havilland-canada-dhc-8-100-zs-thu-titan-helicopters-group


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