Aviation

Nigeria has tried unsuccessfully to set up a national airline and is ready to pour money into the project. How realistic is the agenda for the a new national airline for Nigeria? WOLE SHADARE writes Hope wanes In 2014 before he was elected, President Muhammadu Buhari made the setting up of national carrier one of his priorities if he got to be elected as Nigeria’s president. Five years has gone past and the country is yet to…

Dana Air has announced that it airlifted 5.4 million passengers in the last 11 years of its operations According to a statement by the airline’s Media and Communications Manager, Mr Kingsley Ezenwa, the airline hopes to double the figure by sustaining its operational efficiency, increasing its fleet size, maintaining its record on-time performance, and raising the bar of its excellent service delivery in the coming years. “Having completed a commercial analysis of our loads in…

…AIB to criminalise over-writing of CVR ….Releases three preliminary findings The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) today released three preliminary reports on serious incidents involving three aircraft owned and operated by Air Peace Limited. More worrisome is report that recordings of the occurrence on the Cockpit Voice Recorder were found overwritten, an offence the AIB said would be put in the law as criminal offence. Over-writing of CVR amounts to alterations of information in the data…

South African Airways (SAA) has cancelled flights scheduled for Friday and Saturday because of a pending strike by a majority of employees but said on Thursday it hoped its revised wage offer would avert the walkout at the state-run carrier. SAA has failed to turn a profit since 2011 while relying on state bailouts to fund a growing financing gap. The airline is also without a permanent chief executive and has yet to file annual…

Cabin crew and other workers at South African Airways (SAA) will go on strike on Friday over the struggling state airline’s plan to cut more than 900 jobs, unions said on Wednesday. “We are left with no choice but to resort to this drastic action by withdrawing our labour and going on strike,” Zazi Nsibanyoni-Anyiam, president of the South African Cabin Crew Association, told a joint press briefing with the National Union of Metal Workers…

 Nigerian carrier, Dana Air, on Sunday celebrated the 11th anniversary of its flight operations by rewarding customers with various gifts ranging from free tickets to souvenirs. The Chief Operating Officer, Mr Obi Mbanuzuo ,while speaking at a brief ceremony  in Lagos  said that the airline would never have made it this far but for its loyal guests and staff who believed in  what the airline stood for and have kept it going, hence the reward…

With airline operators abandoning fuel guzzling four-engine airplanes for more efficient models, there is a huge shift from super jumbo jets like the B747 and A380 for medium size editions probably for economic reasons. Wole Shadare writes End of the road? Could the end be near for passenger flights on four-engine jets? That’s a question Boeing and Airbus may soon have to answer as sales of their four-engine passenger planes languish at the world’s two…

  ….spurs over N5bn loss annually The resurgence of bird strikes in Nigerian aviation industry and its economic losses to airlines, which is put at approximately N5billion annually, has become a source of worry to operators. Although bird strike is a global phenomenon, many factors such as the nation’s carelessness to the environment culminating in over grown bushes and other untidy behaviours around the aerodromes are escalating the activities of birds and animals around airport…

  South Africa’s struggling state-owned airline South African Airways (SAA) could cut more than 900 jobs as it restructures to stem severe financial losses, the airline said in a statement. SAA said it had started consultations with its more than 5,000 staff and was talking to labour unions. The airline has not made an annual profit since 2011 and is grappling with severe funding difficulties and an inefficient and ageing fleet of airplanes, reports Reuters….

  The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has commenced the trial run of the newly installed Category III Instrument Landing System (ILS) at Runway 18 Right, Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. The exercise which started on Monday indicated that the equipment is fully operational on test basis, even as all the ILS components – Localizer, Glide Slope and Distance Measuring Equipment are propagating signals optimally. Speaking at the commencement of the test run, Managing Director…