Africa

Dassault’s Falcon 8X recently set a new coast-to-coast speed record, flying from Santa Monica’s notoriously short 3,500 foot runway to Teterboro, New Jersey. The flight took just 4 hours and 28 minutes with overall poor tailwinds, averaging just five knots, over the trip.

Last week, Rolls-Royce joined Airbus and aircraft lease company, ALC at a gala dinner in Toulouse, to celebrate the delivery of Air Mauritius’ first Trent 7000 powered Airbus A330neo, scheduled to arrive in Mauritius at 10.00am, Friday 19th April.

The last of the A320neo variants, an Airbus A319neo test aircraft has completed its maiden flight powered by Pratt & Whitney GTF engines for the first time.

Airlines Association of Southern African (AASA) CEO, Chris Zweigenthal, was named the recipient of the 2019 Ato Girma Wake Lifetime Award in recognition of his contribution to the air transport industry.

The ACJ319neo1 successfully completed a first flight lasting one hour and 55 min on April 24, 2019, beginning a short flight-test programme to verify its corporate jet features – such as the extra fuel tanks in its cargo-hold, which enable intercontinental range.

Drone-delivery company Zipline International has officially expanded its operations in to Ghana where it will have the capacity to dispense medicines and vaccines to millions of people throughout the country from four new facilities in the west African country.

South African Airways (SAA) has announced that due to the closure of the main runway at the Chileka International Airport in Blantyre, Malawi from 24 April to 24 July 2019, the airline’s operations have been affected.

Fastjet Group is preparing to establish a branded operation in South Africa next year following its investment in Federal Airlines.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and The Arab Civil Aviation Organization (ACAO) have signed an MoU to deepen their cooperation to advance the safe, efficient and sustainable development of air transport in the Middle East North Africa region (MENA).

Airlines that are adding tracking at more points of the baggage journey are enjoying a huge improvement in bag delivery globally. The SITA 2019 Baggage IT Insights – officially launched at an event in Abu Dhabi International Airport yesterday – shows that where tracking is done at check-in and loading onto the aircraft, the rate of improvement is as high as 66%.

Bombardier Commercial Aircraft is relocating its Q Series aircraft regional support team from Lanseria International Airport, to Airways Park (close to O.R. Tambo International Airport).

EgyptAir is to move six of its flight operations from terminal two (TB2) instead of Terminal three (TB3) at Cairo International Airport (CAI), while the arrival flights from the same points will be landing at TB3 as usual.

Cabo Verde Airlines has entered a strategic partnership with TAAG Angola Airlines, the national airline of Angola, in a codeshare agreement of flights operated by TAAG between Luanda and Sal.

FAI Technik, the maintenance division of Germany’s FAI Aviation Group, has now received FAA approval for its EASA Part 145 licence. This follows similar approvals from the Nigerian authorities in October 2018.

O.R. Tambo International Airport, South Africa’s biggest and busiest port of entry, was named African Airport of the Year at the Air Cargo Africa conference and exhibition. This was the fourth time the airport has won the award.

Ethiopian Airlines has finalised all preparations to launch a thrice weekly flight to Marseille, France as of July 02, 2019.

The 19th edition of the world’s largest annual airport exhibition in Dubai later this month will see a record participation of 211 Hosted Buyers, many coming from Africa.

Air Senegal has announced the appointments of Philippe Bohn as Independent Administrator and MIbrahima Kane as CEO.

EgyptAir’s second B787-9 Dreamliner has arrived today at Cairo International Airport. The aircraft is slated to operate flights from Cairo to Frankfurt by April 22nd.

Air Mauritius has taken delivery of its first A330-900, on lease from ALC during a ceremony held in Toulouse.

The Rolls-Royce Tay 611-8 engine, which entered service in 1987, recently reached 10 million flying hours in nearly five million flights.

Africa’s vast aviation potential as the continent continues to increase airline frequency to the GCC will be explored at the Inaugural CONNECT Middle East, India and Africa – co-located with Arabian Travel Market 2019 and taking place at Dubai World Trade Centre on Tuesday 30th April and Wednesday 1st May.

ACUNIS, the cooperation between Unitechnik and AMOVA both from Germany, planned and implemented the new air cargo terminal in Addis Ababa for government-owned Ethiopian Airlines.

Bombardier Commercial Aircraft is celebrating the delivery of the first two of four CRJ900 aircraft ordered by Uganda National Airlines Company in July 2018.

TAL Aviation and Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) have agreed that TAL Aviation's European sales teams covering France, Ireland and Sweden will be acting on behalf of the carrier to build Air Tanzania's brand in these territories.