Travels

An EgyptAir flight carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo went missing on Thursday, disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt’s national airline said.        WHAT WE KNOW An EgyptAir plane carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew en route from Paris to Cairo has gone missing. French President Francois Hollande said Flight 804 “crashed” and that “no hypothesis” could be ruled out. The plane emitted no distress signal, but…

African airlines are in dire straits as they are likely to lose $100 million in 2016, according to Chief Executive, Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA), Chris Zweigenthal. He disclosed this at the three-day Air Finance for Africa summit that ended in Johannesburg, South Africa, last weekend. This is, however, an improvement on the $300 million loss recorded by the continent’s carriers last year. The AASA boss equally lamented that out of 200 African airlines,…

This year’s Air Finance for Africa summit ended in Johannesburg, South Africa, with tales of woes trailing airline developments. WOLE SHADARE writes The gathering Global aviation experts, who converged on Johannesburg, South Africa, hinged the growth of the aviation industry on sustainable airline operations. They spoke at the 25th yearly African Aviation Finance Conference with the theme: “Air finance for Africa.” In attendance were some African leaders; representatives of aircraft giants – Boeing; Airbus; –…

 From our correspondent in Johannesburg Nigeria’s flag carrier airline, Arik, and some others within the continent could be injected with funds by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to revive their operations, if an arrangement to this effect scales through. To this end, over $20 billion (about N4 trillion) has been earmarked as part of syndicated loans to assist the carriers get out of the woods. Senior Manager, Syndicated and Special Finance Department, Afreximbank, Samuel Mugoya,…

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released demand growth data for global air freight markets for March 2016 showing a 2.0 per cent drop in volumes measured in freight tonne kilometers (FTKs) compared to the same period last year.  In contrast, freight capacity (measured in available freight tonne kilometers or AFTKs) rose by 6.9 per cent, putting increased pressure on already struggling yields. The weak results reflect subdued growth in world trade, exaggerated by…

The demise of Ghana Airways, Nigeria Airways and Air Afrique made interconnectivity within the West African sub-region very difficult. But the Nigerian airlines are now filling the gap, as they dominate the region, writes WOLE SHADARE Big attraction What could be the attractions for Nigerian airlines, as four of her carriers scramble for Accra route? Medview, Arik, Aero and Dana have all made Accra their fortress, providing air services to the city and connecting flights…

The current skyrocketing price of Jet A1 otherwise known as aviation fuel and the deplorable state of the nation’s currency, naira, have been identified as some of the major challenges affecting the growth of the airline sub-sector in Nigeria. Other identified challenges are the high cost of providing standard air transport services, increasing demand for customer satisfaction by air travellers and rising cost of operation. Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Muktar…

United States based Delta Air Lines has placed an order for 37 A321ceo aircraft. This order follows previous Delta orders for the Current Engine Option version of the largest Airbus A320 Family member in 2013 and 2014. The airline took delivery of its first A321 in March 2016. This brings to a total of 82 A321s ordered by the carrier. Each will be powered by CFM56 engines from CFM International.   Delta’s incoming chief executive, Ed…

Endorsement pushes Airbus’ A350 XWB firm order book above 800    China Eastern Airlines has signed a purchase agreement with Airbus for 20 A350-900 aircraft, making the airline the latest customer for the aircraft.   “The introduction of the latest generation A350 XWB aircraft demonstrates that the partnership between China Eastern Airlines and Airbus has embarked on a new phase. The introduction of A350 XWB will play a very important role in promoting our operational…

Airbus posted a 23 percent drop in first quarter core operating profits to EUR€501 million. Group revenues were stable at EUR€12.2 billion “2016 turns out to be the challenging year we anticipated,” chief executive Tom Enders said in reporting the results. Shares in the Franco German-led group fell 6 percent as it highlighted challenges, including a setback on the A400M military transporter. Finance Director, Harald Wilhelm said the financial impact from recent problems with the…