► SOUTH AFRICA: SAA pushes further into Africa with Abidjan & Brazzaville.

South African Airways (SA) will, from 17 August 2012, resume its suspended Johannesburg, South Africa - Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire service that it last plied 3 years ago. The flight will be operated by an Airbus A330-200 twice a week.

► MALI: Air Mali signs code-share with Air France.

Following on from last week's code share agreement signing with Air Burkina of Burkina Faso, Air France announced today, the signing of another code share agreement, this time with Mali's Air Mali (I5). The agreement will see Air France selling Air Mali a quota of seats on its daily flights from Paris to the Malian capital, Bamako.

► BURKINA FASO: Air Burkina signs code-share with Air France.

Air Burkina (2J), the Burkinabe regional airline, is to extend its coverage to include France, with the recent signing of a code sharing agreement with Air France.

Effective 1 June, Air France has been allocating Air Burkina an unspecified number of seats on Air France's daily flight between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Ouagadougou that is operated by either an Airbus A330 or A340.

Air Burkina's Route Map

"Dominique Patry, Vice President International Affairs and Alliances Air France, stated “this partnership agreement fits into a long-term cooperation perspective. It offers an additional illustration of Air France’s strategy in Africa, aiming to work with local partners. Our ultimate ambition is to offer our customers new regional destinations operated by Air Burkina”. "

Read More Here [Air France]

Currently, Air Burkina flies to 11 cities around West Africa and will provide KLM/Air France with an important foothold into the fast growing West African aviation scene and is a development which KLM/Air France hopes to implement on other routes in West and Central Africa as well as in France and Europe.

► SOUTH AFRICA: SAA axes Cape Town - Heathrow; boosts Accra & Mumbai.

South African Airways (SA) will drop its iconic daily Cape Town - London Heathrow service with effect from 15 August 2012. The airline cited low yields on the route as its main cause for dropping the route. In the last 3 years, the annual number of tourists using London as a final destination or as a transitory airport has declined.

► ETHIOPIA: Airbus pitches A330 to Ethiopian.

European aircraft manufacturers, Airbus Industrie, were recently in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, showcasing their A330 in an attempt to woo potential orders from carrier, Ethiopian Airlines (ET). This follows on from a technical presentation made last year in November.

In 1998, Ethiopian placed an order for two A340s to use on its Addis Ababa - Washington DC route, both of which were never delivered, instead being replaced by the airline's present Boeing 767-300s.

The Ethiopian A340 that never was. (Eric Pajaud)

"Crawford Hamilton, director of the A330 programme, told The Reporter that executives of Ethiopian were evaluating the A330 aircraft.

Hamilton said last November an Airbus technical team made a technical presentation to senior officials of Ethiopian in Addis Ababa. “The A330 is a very good long-range aircraft,” says Hamilton. “Ethiopian Airlines is one of the leading airlines in Africa. It is a reliable customer. It is self-sufficient. So we are trying to sell a very good aircraft to a very good airline.”"

Read More Here [EthioSports Ethiopia]

Though a very loyal Boeing operator (of its 48 aircraft at present, 40 of them are Boeing), Ethiopian Airlines did place an order worth some USD$3billion for 12 Airbus A350-900 XWBs at the 2009 Dubai Airshow, for use on its "Far East and the American operations" and with further strong growth forecast in the next 20 years, the airline could be doing a lot more business with Airbus in the near future.

► DJIBOUTI: Air France alters Paris - Djibouti service.

Air France (AF) is to alter its present 3x weekly service from Paris to Djibouti via Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to operate via Riyadh, Saudi Arabia instead, with effect from 2 September 2012. An Airbus A330-200 is used on the route.

An Air France A330 in Djibouti (Pepa T.)

Paris CDG – Riyadh – Djibouti

• AF524 CDG1350 – 2050RUH2205 – 0030+1JIB 332 146

• AF525 JIB0220 – 0440RUH0600 – 1130CDG 332 257

Riyadh service will increase from 3 to 5 weekly as a result (existing non stop terminator service will operate as 2x weekly instead of 3x). Djibouti frequencies remain unchanged.

Paris CDG – Jeddah – Djibouti 3 weekly service operates until 2 September 2012.

• AF3870 CDG1110 – 1805JED1920 – 2125JIB 332 136

• AF3871 JIB2345 – 0150+1JED0305+1 – 0805+1CDG 332 136

Read More Here [Airline Route]

► GHANA: Virgin Atlantic to use A330-300s to Accra from 2013.

With effect from 31 March 013, Virgin Atlantic Airways (VK) will employ its Airbus A330-300s on the London Heathrow - Accra route. At present, the route is serviced by an Airbus A340-300.

Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330-300

London Heathrow – Accra 5x weekly effective 31 March 2013.

• VS657 LHR2245 – 0500+1ACC 333 x36

• VS658 ACC1010 – 1800LHR 333 x47

Read More Here [Airline Route]

► NIGERIA: Air Nigeria to launch Dubai next; aims to be privatized by 2014.

With the successful launch last week of its Lagos - London (Gatwick) service using a leased Egyptair A330-200, Air Nigeria has announced that its next A330 is to arrive "in the next 20 days" with it to be deployed on their Lagos - Dubai route.

Also outlined were plans for a future Rome and Paris route (previously reported here by The African Aviation Tribune) where the chairman of Air Nigeria, Jimo Ibrahim, stated there was significant potential for business.

"He disclosed  that data available from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) showed that 58,000 passengers travelled to Rome last year; adding that Italian airline, Alitalia carried only 27,000 of these people and the rest were carried by other foreign carriers.

“So there is a beckoning market to those destinations. ‘So we will be flying Lagos-Rome-Paris. ‘We have got government approval to fly to Rome, Paris, Johannesburg and Dubai. We will start flying to Dubai before the end of this quarter”, he said."

Air Nigeria A330 at London Gatwick (Skylineraviation.de)

Of particular interest however, was the ambitious goal of turning Air Nigeria into a public listed company by 2014. 

But, can this be done, given the previous disasters that were Nigeria Airways (collapsed in 2003 due to mismanagement, corruption, over-staffing and a debt burden of over USD60million) and Air Nigeria's precursor, Virgin Nigeria (Richard Branson pulled out because of alleged government interference and under-table dodgy dealings)?

"‘I want to assure you that effective two years from now; we will be depositing Air Nigeria into your hands.  What does that mean? Air Nigeria will now have to go PLC. It will now be an airline owned by Nigerians. I will sell my shares, and then you can buy some. Air Nigeria will be in the market. So we will meet at Annual General Meetings, and then we will discuss. So that is our plans. By then, Air Nigeria will be fully Nigerian,’ Ibrahim said.

He disclosed that the Nigeria Stock Exchange had invited the company this year to come and be listed under the special registry so that Air Nigeria would be in the market.
‘You will be a shareholder, I will be a shareholder. It will be our airline,’ he added."

 Read More Here [ThisDay Nigeria]

► NIGERIA: Air Nigeria lands at London Gatwick (Picture).

As previously reported by The African Aviation Tribune, Air Nigeria this week started Lagos - London Gatwick using a leased Egyptair Airbus A330-200.

Air Nigeria A330 at London Gatwick (Skylineraviation.de)

► ZAMBIA: KLM returns to Lusaka (Pictures).

After a 16 year break, Dutch airline KLM (KL) has resumed direct flights from Amsterdam to Lusaka 3x weekly using an Airbus A330-200. Pictures courtesy The Lusaka Times.

KLM arrives in Lusaka (Lusaka Times)

"KLM will fly to Lusaka three times a week using an Airbus A330-200. The aircraft offers space for 243 passengers; 30 in World Business Class, 178 in Economy Class, and 35 in the Economy Comfort Zone.

Starting 15 May, flight KL521 will depart every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 12:30 from Schiphol and will arrive in Lusaka the same day at 22:05. The return flight, KL522, will depart from Lusaka the same day at 23:50. The flight will arrive in Amsterdam the next morning at 9:45."

Read More Here [KLM]

► SOUTH AFRICA: Emirates to boost Durban to B777-300ER daily from June.

Since its inauguration in May 2010 in time for the FIFA World Cup of 2010 held in South Africa, Durban's King Shaka International Airport has being growing from strength to strength.
 

Durban's King Shaka International Airport

Following reports last week that regional carrier SA Express were to start Durban to Lusaka flights effective July 2012 with the intention of hopefully then expanding out into sub-Saharan Africa with routes to Harare and Lubumbashi, so Emirates Airlines (EK) has thrown its hat into the ring and is to replace its current Dubai - Durban daily service using an Airbus A330, with a larger Boeing 777-300ER with effect from June.

"The introduction of the Boeing 777-300ER is in response to strong demand on the route. In 2011, Emirates carried over 165 000 passengers between Durban and Dubai with a high average seat factor of 83 percent,” said Jean Luc Grillet, Emirates senior vice-president for commercial operations in Africa."

Read More Here [The Mercury South Africa]

► SOUTH AFRICA: SAA boosts Mumbai service from June.

Following Jet Airways' suspension of Mumbai - Johannesburg with effect from 12 June 2012, so South African Airways (SA) has moved to fill the gap by tentatively (i.e. subject to government approval) increasing its frequencies from Johannesburg to Mumbai, from 4x weekly to 5x weekly, using an Airbus A330-200.

► NIGERIA: Air Nigeria gets its two A330s; to get four 787s?

After having postponed the start of Lagos-Johannesburg by one month, Nigerian national carrier Air Nigeria (VK), today finally took delivery of two wet leased EgyptAir A330s from Cairo.

Air Nigeria's A330-300 leaves for Lagos (Nigeria Aviation News)

In other Air Nigeria related news, following in the footsteps of local competitor Arik Air, who in 2007 placed an order for 7 Boeing 787s, Air Nigeria has placed an order for 4 of the Dreamliners, to be used between Lagos-London, and ultimately, Lagos-Baltimore and Lagos-Dubai-Beijing, though this has yet to be confirmed by Boeing.

Nigerian press reports state that the deal, worth nearly USD$900million, is to be financed by the USEXIM bank.

"THISDAY checks revealed that each of the aircraft will cost the airline $221,775,000, totalling $887,100,000 which will be financed by the USEXIM Bank.

According to the chairman of Air Nigeria, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, who confirmed the aircraft orders, as initial deposit, the airline will be required to sign and pay four per cent of the total cost of the aircraft amounting to $35,484,000 by May 22 in London. On delivery, he said the aircraft will fly the Lagos-London, Lagos-Baltimore and Lagos-Dubai-Beijing routes, while one plane will be kept in reserve.

If everything goes according to plan, Air Nigeria will be the first West African airline to have the Dreamliner aircraft in its fleet. Ethiopian Airways has already placed orders for the Dreamliner aircraft, but delivery date is set for 2016."

Read More Here [ThisDay Nigeria] 

► UGANDA: Turkish Airlines flight to Johannesburg diverts to Entebbe.

A Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 TC-JNM recently enroute from Istanbul to Johannesburg, South Africa was forced to divert to Entebbe, Uganda following engine problems.

The aircraft landed safely, though passengers were forced to wait for a replacement aircraft to be dispatched from Turkey.

THY Turkish Airlines A330 TC-JNM (Alfonso Rodenas Pena)

"A Turkish Airlines Airbus A330-300, registration TC-JNM performing flight TK-40 (dep May 10th) from Istanbul (Turkey) to Johannesburg (South Africa) with 250 passengers, was enroute near Entebbe (Uganda) when the crew needed to shut an engine (CF6) down. The aircraft diverted to Entebbe for a safe landing."

Read More Here [The Aviation Herald]

► SEYCHELLES: Air Seychelles' crew complete Airbus A320/A330 training in Abu Dhabi.

In preparation for the introduction into service of the Airbus A330 and Airbus A320, Air Seychelles crew have recently completed their conversion courses for the types in Abu Dhabi, under the auspices of Etihad Airways.

► SEYCHELLES: Air Seychelles boosts Mahe - Abu Dhabi service to 8x weekly; joins Etihad's FF program.

Seychellois national carrier, Air Seychelles (HM), has increased its frequencies between Mahe and Abu Dhabi to 8x weekly, using codeshared flights with partner airline Etihad. The flights will be operated by four times by an Etihad A320 and four times by an Air Seychelles A330-200 leased from Etihad.

► SEYCHELLES: Air Seychelles - first A320/A330 flights in May.

Air Seychelles (HM) will operate its first flights using the A320 & A330 in May according to blog sources. This comes after Etihad acquired a 40% stake in the Indian Ocean Island airline back in February, whereby one of the key points laid out for immediate attention, was the issue of fleet renewal, and a return to profitability for the ailing airline.