Author: Wole Shadare

 Test aircraft performed long Flight in typical airline operating conditions    The A350-1000 completed successfully its first and unique “Early Long Flight” with 310 passengers on board, including 10 Airbus Flight Test crew members and 13 Virgin Atlantic cabin crew. Test aircraft MSN065 took off from and landed in Toulouse on May 11th after a 12 hours flight.   During the long-haul flight the passengers, comprising Airbus employees and cabin crew personnel from Virgin Atlantic…

  To support Western and Central African markets Visa, a global payments technology company, today announced that it has opened its regional headquarters for the Western and Central Africa region in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire. Visa staff will work with local governments, financial institutions and merchants to bring the benefits of electronic payments, and introduce new payments technologies such as mVisa to more people in Cote D’Ivoire and the wider Western and Central Africa cluster. mVisa…

I visited Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State Tuesday this week. I was part of a media team that was invited to cover the resumption of Arik’s flights to the city, more than one year after the carrier withdrew services to the airport. Arik’s withdrawal from Maiduguri was not unconnected with unrest in the North East, especially Borno State where the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents held sway before the military degraded them (Boko Haram) and…

700 workers of defunct airline died in 11 years   Over 2000 former workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways are uncertain and confused over the N74 billion severance allowances promised them by the Federal Government early this year. They had expressed confidence and hope that the Minister of State of Aviation, Hadi Sirika’s pronouncement that government would look into the matter following the setting up of a committee to look into it raised their hope…

The project was thought to have been put in the cooler, but the appointment of advisors for a new national airline has revived hope for the much anticipated carrier. WOLE SHADARE writes   It initially appeared as if the national carrier and airports concession projects were dead. The national carrier project was one of the campaign promises of the Federal Government. Consequently, on assumption of power, the government floated a committee to look at the…