Dana Air Decorates Captains, Others

Dana Air has decorated new captains on its Boeing 737 aircraft as well as other aircraft in its fleet, assuring its staff that it would continue to reward excellence and hard work. Decorating Captain Shina Agbelese and Captain Ademola Akinyemi in Lagos, the Chief Operating Officer of Dana Air, Mr. Obi Mbanuzuo, said it was exciting, “to see our young Nigerian pilots performing excellently, and doing amazingly well.”

“It takes a lot to train pilots and with over 80 per cent of our pilots trained by Dana Air, we would continue to be a trailblazer in building capacity for homegrown pilots.
“We are glad to be making a huge impact in this regard and contributing our quota to the growth and stability of the industry,’’ he added.

He congratulated the newly decorated captains for their success and urged them to sustain the airline’s strict safety standards, and emphasis on professionalism. Read more

Local Airlines Rebound with Traffic Surge, New Routes

Despite the operational hiccups facing the sector, local airlines have recorded a marginal rebound in business, recording improved passenger patronage across networks.

And in response to the uptake, some of the carriers are opening new routes and reactivating old ones to increase nationwide connectivity.

The Guardian recently reported that the liquidity crisis in the economy was eating deeper into the daily operations of the local airlines, causing airlines’ capacity to dwindle and airfares hitting the rooftop.

The situation has not improved, but business appears to be looking upon the traffic end of the industry. Read more

IATA Adds An All-Important New E-Auction Platform To Its MRO SmartHub…Lufthansa Technik To Auction Large Amount Of Surplus Aircraft Components On April 26

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced from its headquarters in Montreal, Canada that it has added a new functionality to its MRO SmartHub which allows users of the product to sell their surplus aircraft components and parts via online auctions.

“MRO SmartHub is a neutral web-based platform enabling airlines, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) providers, OEMs and trading organizations to gain a greater transparency into the surplus aircraft parts market, plus real-time access to fair market values (FMV),”said IATA.

Explaining the operability of the new e-Auction platform, IATA said the features include: “Choice of bidding for an entire auction lot or submitting an item-by-item bid; Ability for buyers to simultaneously participate in multiple auctions; Options for buyers to download details of the auction listings, review these offline and then upload their bids into the live auction; Easy communication between bidder and seller via an integrated chat function; Sellers can fully customize auction parameters; Access to extensive statistics and analytics for bidders and sellers on the content and status of every auction.” Read more

Finnair to Accept COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate As An Alternative to Negative Test Result or An Immunity Certificate When Traveling to Finland

Finnair will start accepting a COVID-19 vaccination certificate from the first vaccination dose as an alternative to a negative test result or a certificate of a previous COVID-19 infection, on Finnair flights to Finland from May 11, 2021. In line with the recommendation by the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare, Finnair has since late January required that all passengers travelling to Finland – excluding transfer passengers – present either a negative test certificate or an immunity/recovery certificate as a prerequisite for boarding.

In addition, as of May 11, there is no requirement for children under the age of 16 to present a health certificate, but Finnair recommends children between 12 and 15 years of age arrive with proof of a negative test result. This is to speed up the arrival procedure at Helsinki Airport, where passengers with a negative test result are exempt from testing on arrival. Read more

Covid-19: UAE Suspends All Passenger Flights From India

The NCEMA and the GCAA said the suspension applies to all UAE-based and foreign carriers

All flights from India to the UAE will be suspended for 10 days from 11.59pm on April 24, the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA) announced on Thursday. All inbound flights for national and international carriers coming from India will be affected.

The travel ban includes inbound transit passengers with exception of transit flights coming to the UAE and heading to India, the GCAA said in a statement.

The GCAA indicated that it is required for those coming from India through other countries that the period of stay in those countries is not less than 14 days to be allowed to enter the country, as of 23.59 on Saturday, April 24, 2021, for 10 days that can be extended.

Cargo flights between the two countries will continue, as usual, the statement added.

The GCAA affirmed that nationals of the UAE and diplomatic missions between the two countries, official delegations, businessmen’s planes and golden residence holders are excluded from this decision, provided that they should take preventive measures that include a mandatory 10-day quarantine and a PCR test at the airport as well as another test on the fourth and eighth days of entering the country. According to the decision, the period of PCR test is reduced from 72 hours to 48 hours, provided that the tests issued by accredited laboratories bearing the QR Code are accepted. Read more

Canada Bans Flights To And From India

Cites the alarming Covid-19 situation in India

Canada hassuspended all flights to and from India for the next 30 days due to rising Covid-19 cases. The flights from Pakistan have also been banned. During a virtual press conference, the Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said that because an increasing number of travellers from both the countries have been arriving in Canada with Covid-19, all commercial and private passenger flights have been barred.

Connecting flights have been permitted. However, it would be compulsory for passengers to produce negative RT-PCR test reports on arrival.

The Canadian government has said that it will permit cargo shipments of essential goods.

Prior to this, Hongkong, the US, the UK, Dubai among others have banned flights to and from India. Read more

Why Kano, PH, Enugu are Yet to Resume International Flights

The Federal Government’s delay in issuing notice to airmen (NOTAM) and low passenger turnout are key factors delaying the resumption of international flights from the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano; Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa; and the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

This is just as THISDAY learnt on Wednesday that the alleged insistence by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that only Emirates Airlines would be allowed to operate to Dubai from Nigeria has prompted the Minister of Aviation to deny the Middle East airline the approval to resume flights to Abuja and Lagos.

THISDAY investigations revealed that after the special flights operated by Ethiopia Airlines and Egypt Air on April 6, 2021, from Kano to Addis Ababa and Cairo respectively, international flight service was expected to have officially opened from the Kano airport, but airlines are yet to complete their documentations to kick-off operations from there. Read more

Nigeria’s Aircraft, Age and Safety

There have been debates over the years on the age of aircraft that operate in Nigeria.
While the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) pegged the maximum age of aircraft that could be allowed to operate into the country at 22 years, some industry stakeholders kick against the age limit, insisting that airworthiness of aircraft is determined by maintenance.

Some industry operators also excoriated the NCAA for pegging the cycle of major maintenance (C-check) to 18 months, insisting that the period is short and should be extended, considering the huge amount of money spent on carrying out C-checks overseas. Read more

Okonkwo: Cooperation among Nigerian Airlines will Beget Immense Benefits

The Chairman/CEO, United Nigeria Airlines, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo, in this interview said there is need for domestic carriers to cooperate in order to provide efficient services to customers and also cut back costs. He also spoke about the impact of high cost of fuel on airlines and consequent high airfares. Chinedu Eze brings the excerpts:

United Nigeria commenced operations over two months ago, what are you looking at with regards to creating more jobs for Nigerians within the next five years?

For us to be flying today, that means we have employed a whole lot of people. Some of them, up to 50 to 60 per cent, are having their first experience in aviation and they know aviation is very strict. There must be training, there must be indoctrination, there must be standard they have to meet. For us, these number of people are those who have benefited from the opportunities we have created. So that is guaranteed and confirmed. Recruiting more people is also in the pipeline as we expand our routes; open our operational base and that will go on and on. The more aircraft we have, the more people that will be employed. Read more

AIB-N Commissioner Lists Priorities

The Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau Nigeria (AIB-N), Akin Olateru has listed staff welfare, training, promotion of staff and provision of quality equipment as some of his top priorities as he commenced his second term in office.

He told journalists in Lagos that he would ensure the bureau continue to deliver on its mandate by entrenching utmost professionalism in the investigation of serious incidents and accidents.
He also added that the management would make public its safety recommendations as fast as possible to prevent recurrence of similar serious incident or accident.

“There are a few items on the list. Priority number one is the issue staff welfare, training, issue of promotion and equipping our staff with the right tools and things that will make them happy. Read more

Ethiopian Airlines unveils COVID-19 lab

Ethiopian Airlines Group, said it has partnered BGI Health Ethiopia, a subsidiary of China’s biotech giant, the BGI Genomics Co., Ltd, to launch high-end COVID-19 testing laboratory at its main hub, the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

The testing centre is opened to revitalise the passengers’ business by creating a seamless travel experience that includes COVID-19 testing to passengers that are departing or transiting via Addis Ababa.

The lab can accommodate 1,000 COVID-19 tests at a faster pace per day and could be expanded.

Ethiopian Airports CEO, Mr Eskinder Alemu said regular test results can be obtained within three hours, leading to a convenient travel arrangement by reducing waiting time for testing and result collection.

“We introduced the testing lab inside our hub at Addis Ababa with a view to addressing our customers’ challenges in travel and revive the passenger service. Read more