The battle for the East African aviation market today heated up significantly when the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) dually announced the granting to Kenya Airways (KQ) of regulatory approval in the form of an Air Service License for the launch of its low-cost subsidiary, Jambo Jet, whilst at the same time, it granted FastJet certification for the use of its Airbus A319s in Kenya.
In what turned out to be a less than auspicious relaunch, Tanzanian national carrier Air Tanzania (TC) made a pig's breakfast of its debut on Friday morning, by canceling its Dar es Salaam to Mwanza via Kilimanjaro flight. A lone flight to Mwanza later in the evening on Friday served as the carrier's return to service, though news reports state that Dar es Salaam - Kilimanjaro flights will be postponed for roughly a week.
After a cabinet meeting which judged troubled national carrier, Air Madagascar (MD), to be on the path to recovery, the Madagascar government will, before the end of October, send an inter-ministerial delegation to Brussels to lobby for the removal of national carrier, Air Madagascar (MD), from the EU's No Fly Ban List.
[UPDATE 12 OCTOBER] Following on from its launch of direct Durban - Lusaka flights in July, South African regional carrier, SA Express (XZ), today announced in the Zimbabwean press that it will start a 3x weekly direct Durban, South Africa - Harare, Zimbabwe service using a Bombardier CRJ-200, effective 3 October 2012.
Libyan carrier, Afriqiyah (8U), have announced via their official twitter account that their next aircraft to arrive in November, will arrive in the carrier's new colours; "the infamous 9s finally being removed." No previews of the new colour scheme have been revealed, though it is said to be "independence flag related."
As part of its fight to remain afloat financially, troubled South African LCC, 1Time (T6), has announced that it is to cut its fleet down from 10 to 8 aircraft with plans to trim its workforce down by 15%.
Ghana's Minister of Transport, Alhaji Collins Dauda, yesterday announced the signing of a
Memorandum of Understanding with the China Airports
Construction Corporation (CACC) to undertake a feasibility study for a
conceptual design for a new international airport to be situated near Prampram in Dangbe-East District, near Accra.
A Boeing 737-700 (MSN 34263 | 5T-CLC), leased from Aviation Capital Group and operated by Mauritanian Airlines International (L6), the national airline of Mauritania, on Tuesday, suffered yet another technical glitch; its second in 3 weeks.
Moroccan LCC, Air Arabia Maroc (3O), will from 28 October 2012, start once weekly Sunday flights between Casablanca, Morocco and Toulouse, France, which will increase to a twice weekly service (an added Thursday flight) from mid-November onwards.
Ethiopian Airlines (ET) is currently incorporating a stopover in Cairo, Egypt on its previously direct Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Stockholm, Sweden flights.
FastJet have announced their debut route; that of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Nairobi, Kenya and return. The route's debut flight will operate as a return VIP flight with 3x daily service between the two East African capitals to follow. No specific date, however, was given for the start of operations, though recent news reports have hinted at a possible November date launch.
Egyptair Maintenance & Engineering, a subsidiary of Egypt's national carrier Egyptair (MS), has selected Messier-Bugatti-Dowty for the exchange and overhaul of landing gear on ten of Egyptair's Airbus A320s, and for the
centre landing gears on three of Egyptair's remaining Airbus A340s, prior to their phasing out.
As part of its long term expansion strategy, Namibian national carrier, Air Namibia (SW), has awarded a contract worth USD4million to Chicago-based firm JBT AeroTech, to supply it with new airport ground equipment.
In an incident that strongly resembles an Arik Air B737's run-in with the wing tip of a parked Nigerian Air Force C130 Hercules aircraft at Jos Airport in July, an IRS Airlines (LVB) Fokker 100, taxiing for departure as flight LVB3306 from Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos to Kano via Abuja (Nigeria), this morning (07h48L) hit a truck belonging to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
Air Seychelles (HM) has announced Q3 revenues of USD$13.8 million, up 23% on Q2, as the airline's restructuring programme, initiated in February of this year, took effect in the drive towards profitability for 2012. The growth in revenues was led by a 51% quarter-on-quarter increase in passengers, up from 53,066 to 79,887, as seat factors rose from 43% to 60%. Air Seychelles’ management team is confident that the airline will achieve its target of profitability in 2012, marking a major turnaround after several years of heavy losses.
As we reported last week, Tanzanian national carrier Air Tanzania (TC) will resume flights on Friday 12 October 2012 using their Bombardier Dash 8-300 (MSN 474 | 5H-MWF) along with two
leased Boeing 737-500 of unknown origin.
An Azza Air Transport (AZZ) Antonov AN-12BP (*confirmed MSN 402010 | ST-ASA) operating a flight for the Sudanese military, has crashed 40 kilometers west of Omdurman, as it was climbing out of Khartoum International Airport en-route to El Fasher, capital of North Darfur.
Algeria's Tassili Airlines (SF), last week, launched once weekly direct flights between Hassi Messaoud in south-east Algeria, and Rome Fiumicino, Italy using a Boeing 737-800. This new route marks Tassili's first foray into the regional market, having been an exclusively domestic Algerian charter operator until now.
Enigmatic Equatoguinean carrier CEIBA Intercontinental (C2), fresh from the inauguration last week of their first international route between Malabo and Madrid, have unveiled a new livery, with one of their ATR 72's (MSN 790 | 3C-LLI) being the first to receive it following a paintjob in Las Palmas, Spain.
South African Airways (SA) CEO Siza Mzimela, along with Theunis Potgieter, the carrier's Commercial General Manager and Sandra Coetzee, its Legal & Risk General Manager, today joined now ex-Chairwoman Cheryl Carolus and seven other non executive board members in jumping the SAA ship.
Air France (AF) will, from 31 March 2013, start daily operations to Casablanca, Morocco using an Airbus A318.
Burkina Faso now has a second operator in addition to Air Burkina (2J); Ariella Airlines has now started operations with its first route being Ouagadougou - Bamako (Mali) - Pointe Noire (Congo Brazzaville) and Pointe Noire (Congo Brazzaville) - Cotonou (Benin) - Bamako (Mali) - Ouagadougo.
Belgian carrier Brussels Airlines (SN) is to terminate its Bamako, Mali flights effective 8 January 2013. Bamako is currently served once weekly in tandem with Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
In a move bound to have serious repercussions in France and with Air France trade unions in particular, the maintenance wing of Air France, Air France Industrie, has announced it will outsource 100 out of the 450 technician jobs at its Croix-du-Sud Facility at Toulouse-Blagnac, to Morocco.
Nigerian carrier Dana Air (9J), following the reinstatement of its Operator's Licence in September by the Nigerian Government in early September, has embarked on a series of test flights in preparation for its resumption of scheduled passenger flight operations in the near future.
After ending their 12-year-long code-share deal with Delta Airlines (DL) as their American code-share partner in June, Moroccan national carrier, Royal Air Maroc (AT), has moved on and today announced the signing of an interline deal with American LCC JetBlue Airways (B6). 
The move will see a wider variety of flights being offered to each other's passengers, that were previously unavailable.
Khartoum based carrier Nova Air (O9) are set to receive their maiden Boeing 737-500 (MCN 29122 | M-ABES), leased from Dutch leasers
Sojitz Aircraft Leasing B.V. The airline is currently in Bournemouth, UK having been painted in the company's colours, and is now awaiting its ferry flight to Khartoum where it will be used for charter flights.
Tanzanian private carrier Precision Air (PW) yesterday presented its Ernst & Young audited report for the Financial Year 2011/2012 to shareholders, marking the airline's first annual general meeting since the company floated its shares
in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange
(DSE) in November of last year.
At a ceremony held last week and overseen by the Malian Minister of Facilities' Planning, Mamadou Coulibaly, and attended by the Ministers of Defense, Security, Communications, the Minister of Handicrafts and Tourism as well as the Minister responsible for
Malians Abroad and African Integration, and various government bureaucrats, the capital Bamako's Sénou International Airport's newly renovated, reinforced and extended runway 06/24, was handed over to Aéroports du Mali (AdM) for immediate operational use.
Tanzanian national carrier Air Tanzania (TC) is looking to resume flights by 10 October, should it reach an agreement with Dubai based ACMI specialists AeroVista, from whom they leased a Boeing 737-500 (MSN 27354 | 4L-AJB).
American carrier Delta Airlines (DL) has opened a ticketing office in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, as the airline moves to strengthen and consolidate its presence in East Africa, a prime tourist destinations for many Americans.
The South African Government today announced that it would guarantee USD$600 million in loans for troubled state airline South African Airways (SA) over the next two years. The news comes as dust from last week's mass boardroom resignation settles, with 8 new board-members having been appointed, in addition to a new chairman.
Emirati carrier Emirates (EK) has allured to plans it has for future partnerships with Africa-focused low-cost carriers as the mega-carrier moves to boost its presence on the continent.
In a press statement today, Royal
Air Maroc (AT) announced it will start 3x weekly flights between the Spanish capital, Madrid, and the northern
Moroccan city of Tangier effective 11 October.
The flights will be operated with ATR72-600 aircraft.
Rwandan national carrier Rwandair (WB) has announced various changes to its Nigeria and its previously announced East African route timetables, as it prepares for the arrival of its first Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) 900NG (MSN# 15286 | 9XR-WH) due, according to informed sources, on 22 October 2012.
Despite protests outside offices of Algeria's national carrier Air Algérie (AH) in both London and Paris two weeks ago, calling for the liberalisation of Algerian skies, the Algerian Government has remained adamant that the creation of any Low Cost Carrier (LCC) in the country would not be profitable; a move that the Algerian media says, smacks of government protectionism for both Air Algèrie and AigleAzur (ZI).