At a ceremony held in the United Arab Emirates recently, the UAE, represented by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), signed an open skies agreement with the government of the Niger, bringing to 122 the number of fully liberal air service agreements the Gulf nation has with countries around the world.
The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA), the Ethiopian authority in-charge of regulating the local airline industry, has refused to renew the operating licences of 19 out of 31 private domestic operators and aviation-related businesses on the grounds that the companies have yet to launch operations of any form.
On the occasion of his airline taking delivery of its second B737-700 (MSN 30726 | 9XR-WK) on Friday 28 June, RwandAir's (WB) maverick CEO, John Mirenge, says he still plans to increase the fleet to at least seventeen aircraft by 2015 with plans to add "several African, Asian and Latin American countries" to its network.
Emirates (EK) will from October 27 incorporate a stop in Conakry, Guinea on its 4x weekly Dubai to Dakar, Senegal route. The service currently operates with an Airbus A340-300. The addition of Conakry takes the number of Emirates destinations in Africa to 24. A global producer of bauxite (aluminium ore), Guinea is fast attracting attention from international carriers aiming to tap into the country's growing premium-class market.
Egyptair Express (MSE) are to launch four weekly flights between Benghazi, Libya and Alexandria with effect from July 2. The flights will operate using an Embraer E170.
Air Seychelles (HM), the national carrier of Seychelles, has selected Accelya Kale Solutions Limited, part of the Accelya Group, to handle the outsourcing of its Passenger Revenue Accounting, Cargo Revenue Accounting, Airmail Revenue Accounting and Miscellaneous (Non-Transport) Billing to Accelya Kale. The transactions are being processed on Accelya Kale’s proprietary platforms – REVERA and FinesseMBS.
Reports via Radio Mozambique state that during a General Meeting of Mozambique’s publicly owned national carrier, LAM - Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (TM) held yesterday in Maputo, Mr Carlos Jeque was appointed to the chairmanship of the board of Directors.
Negotiations between Tunisia and the European Union (EU) regarding a possible Open Skies agreement are set to come to an end today amid reports that Tunisia's Minister of Transport, Abdelkrim Harouni, believes that national carrier, Tunisair (TU), was no longer in any danger
and could hold its own in an open market. Open skies is an air transport liberalization scheme in which any barriers
of entry to participant countries’ airlines are reciprocally lifted as
well as regulations on all forms of air transportation – cargo or
passenger – within their sovereign borders.
Emirates (EK) will from 1 September switch the operational aircraft currently deployed on its Dubai to Cape Town and Dubai to Harare via Lusaka flights. According to AirlineRoute, Harare/Lusaka will switch from the current 777-300ER to the Airbus A340-300 while Cape Town will see flights EK772/773 switch from the A340-300 to a 777-300ER.
Turkey has once more extended its hand to help develop the fledgling civil aviation bodies of nation states in the Horn of Africa, this time with a security training programme aimed at managers from the South Sudanese Civil Aviation Authority - SSCAA. The SSCAA was born in February this year.
The
Nigerian Government , through its Aviation Ministry, has now completed
plans to float a new national carrier to be named Nigeria One (not National One as previously reported).
Mozambique's Minister of Transport and Communications, Paulo Zucula, and Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra have met in Bangkok to discuss various issues pertaining to the development of civil aviation in the Southern African nation.
The Tanzanian Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) has contracted German ATC contractors, Comsoft, to deliver two modern technologies in the fields of air navigation and communication equipment, in order to increase flight safety in the region.
On the back of recent investments in South Africa and Nigeria, fastjet (FN) is reportedly in negotiations with as many as four airlines over possible partnerships, as the struggling LCC attempts to spread its wings across the continent, albeit circuitously.
The Nigerian Senate yesterday confirmed the appointment of Captain Fola Akikuotu as the new Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA). Captain Akikuotu takes over from interim DG, Joyce Nkemakolam, appointed in March.
Ghanaian Minister of Transport, Ms Dzifa Attivor, says preliminary designs for Accra's new international airport have been presented to the Ghana Airports Company Limited. The project will be undertaken by the China Airports Construction Corporation (CACC) and is intended to transform Accra into a regional West African hub.
Thirteen airports in Nigeria - Abuja, Akure, Calabar, Ilorin, Jalingo, Jos, Kano, Lagos, Makurdi, Minna, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Uyo - have been singled out for the construction of perishable cargo terminals, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN has announced.
Hong Kong and Seychelles have announced the signing of a Bilateral Air Services Agreement 
(BASA) which will provide the necessary legal framework for establishing direct air links between the two places. At present, Air Seychelles (HM) serves Hong Kong via Abu Dhabi under the auspices of a codeshare agreement.