Travel News

By Oladeji Adeola

Travelling by road could be an amazing experience, depending solely on where you are heading, your purpose of visiting and the mode of transport.

Travelling by road is cheap and very exciting. It enables you to sight see, interact and take pictures along the way. It is a flexible mode of transport as it gives you the options of cancelling or setting out without much preparation.

To leave the shores of Nigeria legally by road, you are required to have a Nigerian passport, Valid Identification Card, Yellow card or certificate that shows you’ve been vaccinated from Yellow fever and of course Money.

Here are some African countries you can travel to as a Nigerian:

1. GHANA: The journey from Nigeria to Ghana by road is quite a long one but it’s the scenic route. So brace yourself for the adventure. You can either choose to go directly with a transport company or hire out a taxi to take you. You can also get a bus from Jibowu or Maza maza heading to Accra or Weija.

Ghana has great street foods, tourist markets and amazing people. To avoid extortion on the road, arm yourself with your passport, yellow card and Ghana Cedis before travelling. It is also advisable to have other means of identification like a driver’s license or a student/work ID Card.

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2. MALI: Travelling by road to Mali, a sub-Sahara African country is more popular and cheaper through Northern Nigeria. The famous Katsina –Maradi route is still in operation regardless of the hiccups on the way. Another alternative is to board a vehicle from Togo heading to Mali or go to Northern Ghana and board a bus.

3. CAMEROON: To travel to Cameroon, first you need to head to Akwa Ibom in Southern Nigeria from where you’ll travel to the city of Calabar. The second half of the journey is to the town of Ekom and to the Cameroonian border. Lastly, you can board a bus from Ekok to Douala.

4. IVORY COAST: Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d’Ivoire, is a country located on the south coast of West Africa. Travelling to Ivory Coast by road allows you to see some nice places in Cotonou, Togo and Ghana and take good pictures of them.

Basically, travelling to Ivory Coast by road is good for sightseeing. You can board a bus going to Côte d’Ivoire by road in Maza Maza, Lagos State.

5. BENIN REPUBLIC: There are a lot of amazing places for sight-seeing and fun activities in this country, places like Hotel Benin Marina Beach, The Pendjari National Park and Cotonou craft market.

If you won’t be traveling with a transport company, you can board a bus at Mile 2 Motor Park in Lagos going to the borders of Seme. From there, you can board a taxi to Cotonou.

6. TOGO: Togo is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. The country extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its capital Lomé is located.

You can travel to Togo with transport companies or board a bus at Mile 2 Motor Park in Lagos.

7. SIERRA LEONE: Sierra Leone is on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea to the northeast. The capital of Sierra Leone and its largest city is Freetown.

You can travel directly from Lagos to Freetown with a transport company or by a private car. If you are looking for a cheaper way to get to Sierra Leone from Nigeria by road, Mile 2 Motor Park in Lagos is your other option. There you can select the vehicle that you wish to convene you.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has lifted its suspension of Azman Air's B737 operations after greenlighting corrective measures implemented by the carrier following a safety audit.

Among the violations the NCAA listed in its March post-grounding audit included an unsettled debt of NGN1.545 billion naira (USD3.782 million) owed as at December 2020. Other shortcomings included the "incompetence" of both Azman's maintenance director as well as chief pilot, both of whom were blamed for a poor culture of safety at the airline and who have since been replaced.

In a statement on May 1, 2021, the NCAA confirmed it had reviewed “the corrective action plans that were developed and implemented to address the non-compliance and non-conformances identified by the audit (Level 1 findings) and found them satisfactory. In view of the above, the authority hereby lifts the suspension of Parts A3 and D43 of the operations specifications issued to Azman Air with regards to the operations of the B737 aircraft type.”

The duration of the suspension was not without scandal after Azman Air was forced to publically apologize to the NCAA's director-general, Musa Nuhu, after airline staff, in an official airline press release, levelled allegations of "unprofessionalism and extortion" against him. Azman management subsequently repudiated the statement and expressed its regret to Nuhu and the NCAA.

Azman Air, in a separate statement, confirmed the lifting of the suspension, adding it would resume operations soon. It remained “committed to raising the standard when it comes to the safety of crew, equipment, and passengers,” the airline said.

The NCAA on March 15, 2021, had suspended the operation of Asman's fleet of two B737-300s and four B737-500s. As previously reported, this followed an incident involving Azman's B737-500 5N-SYS (msn 28565) leased from GECAS, which had experienced a burst tyre on landing at Lagos in February. Although no one was injured, the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Nigeria had rated the incident as serious.

Azman partly owns and partly leases its B737 fleet. One B737-300 as well as the B737-500 are leased from GECAS, with another B737-500 leased from Standard Chartered Aviation Finance.

The carrier serves domestic routes including to Abuja, Kano, Lagos, and Maiduguri, according to the ch-aviation schedules module.

BY  Panarat Thepgumpanat Chayut Setboonsarng

Travel agencies in Thailand are selling coronavirus "vaccine tours" to the United States, as some wealthy Thais grow impatient awaiting mass inoculations that are still a month away amid the country's biggest outbreak so far.

The tours reflect global differences in vaccinations, with the United States and Britain making swift immunisation gains, but many lower income nations - and increasingly their well-off citizens - are still working to secure doses.

Bangkok tour operator, Unithai Trip, has packages from 75,000 baht to 200,000 baht ($2,400 to $6,400) for trips to San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, with prices dependent on the time gap between doses.

"Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) is one jab, but 90% of inquires want Pfizer (PFE.N)," which needs about 20 days between the first and second doses, the agency's owner, Rachphol Yamsaeng, told Reuters.

He said a group was tentatively scheduled to leave next week.

My Journey Travel is offering a 10-day trip to San Francisco for a Johnson & Johnson shot and said it has received hundreds of calls in three days.

The vaccine tours could be a boon for Thailand's tourism agencies after travel collapsed during the pandemic.

"All tour agencies are suffering now," said Rachapol, whose agency is also offering similar trips to Serbia. "Whatever we can do, we have to try to do it."

A spokesman at the U.S. embassy in Bangkok declined to immediately comment, but the U.S. State Department's website lists medical tourism as a valid reason to visit.

The United States is not the only destination offered to Thais. Another agency, Udachi, advertised a 23-day "VACCation in Russia" to receive the Sputnik V vaccine for up to 210,000 baht ($6,700).

Thailand's main vaccination drive is set to begin in June with locally-produced AstraZeneca (AZN.L) shots.

Its latest outbreak has accounted for more than half of its total 74,900 infections and 318 fatalities.

Thailand's tourism ministry warned on Wednesday that customers should carefully examine vaccination packages after the foreign ministry said U.S. regulations may vary by state.

United Nigeria Airlines says it has increased its flight frequencies from Lagos to Abuja and verse versa with effect from Friday.

Mr Achilleus-Chud Uchegbu, the airline’s Head, Corporate Communications said, in a statement in Lagos on Wednesday that the airline would now fly Lagos-Abuja at 16:00hrs every day.

Uchegbu said that there would also be an additional flight from Abuja to Lagos every day at 17:30hrs.

“The new schedule adds to United Nigeria Airlines regular schedule on the Lagos-Abuja-Lagos route,” he said.

(NAN)

Private investors are expected to raise $250 million to begin a new national carrier, Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika has said.

In a document detailing the status of Aviation Road Map, made available to reporters, the minister said the project development phase has been completed with the development of the Outline Business Case (OBC) and subsequent issuance compliance certificate by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).

“The next step which will involve the commencement of the procurement phase is placement of Request for Qualification (RFQ) in local and international media. $250 million approximately is to be raised to start up the airline by private investors,” he said.

‘The establishment of a national carrier will enable Nigeria to gain optimal benefits from Bilateral Air Services Agreements, take full advantage if the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), introduce competition, leading to competitive fares and better services as well generate employment.

“The National carrier project will be private sector driven with the government not holding more than five per cent shares. The private sector consortium may comprise reputable international airlines such as Qantas, Leasing companies, Aircraft manufacturers, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) financial and institutional investors.

“The government is providing the required support by enabling an environment in terms of sustainable policies, allocation of BASA routes, provision of financial guarantees and ensuring fiscal incentives to sustain the success of the airline,” he said.

As for the establishment of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Centre, Sirika explained in the document that the Ministry is at advanced stage in the procurement phase, adding that ‘a preferred partner has been selected, the next step I commencement and negotiation with the preferred partner and finalisation of Full Business Scale (FBS).

“The proposed independent MRO facility in Nigeria will serve the maintenance demands of airlines in West and Central Africa and also provide maintenance for national carrier and African leasing companies. The MRO will be structured as a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) model with the government acting as both the grantor of the concession and facilitator of the project, while the private partner consortium will be responsible for designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining the proposed facility for an agreed concession period.

“The consortium is expected to comprise an Independent MRO company, real estate development company, construction company, financial and institutional investor. The proposed facility will have the capacity to serve both narrow- and wide-bodied aircraft maintenance requirements and will be located in Abuja, Nigeria”.

BY Okechukwu Nnodim

All airports are to be designated free trade and economic processing zones, the Federal Government has said.

It also announced that the next step for the concession of Nigeria’s four major international airports was the placement of request for qualification in the media.

It disclosed this in a document on the status of the road map/public private partnership projects concession of airports, made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday by the Federal Ministry of Aviation.

“All airports are to be designated as Free Trade/Economic Processing Zones in order to encourage businesses/investments. Process already ongoing for the four major international airports,” the FMA stated.

It added, “Investors in aviation (are) to have pioneer industry status so as to have tax breaks.”

The ministry further stated that the concession of the four major international airports would help fast-track their upgrade, enhance their operational efficiency, profitability and reposition them to operate competitively.

It said the project was being structured as a terminal concession under a public private partnership arrangement between the government and the private sector.

The FMA explained that the private investor would be required to upgrade, manage and operate the airport terminals over the concession period.

It named the airports up for concession as the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos: international and cargo terminals and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja: international, domestic and cargo terminals.

Others are the Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt: international, domestic and cargo terminals; and Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano: international, domestic and cargo terminals.

On status of the projects, the government said, “Project development phase completed with the development of the Outline Business Case and subsequent issuance of compliance certificate by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission.

“Next step (is the) placement of Request for Qualification in local and international media.”

The document further stated that the plan to establish an aerospace university was still ongoing, as the National Universities Commission had given the requirements.

It said the ministry would develop a concept note to be forwarded to NUC for consideration.

It added that the development of cargo/agro-allied airport terminals was being done to take advantage of the high value agricultural products potential of Nigeria.

In a related development, the Federal Government has said four River Basin Development Authorities are to be partially commercialized.

Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said this was part of the reform of the nation’s RBDAs to seek alternative sources of funding to shore up their revenue base and make them self-reliant.

Foreign tourism in Spain in March fell 76% from a year ago when a lockdown was imposed in mid-month, data showed on Thursday, meaning a recovery of the crucial sector from the hammer blow of COVID-19 is not yet in sight.

Spain, the world's second most visited country before the pandemic, received 490,088 foreign tourists in March, down from just over two million in March 2020, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Compared to pre-pandemic March 2019, the number was down more than 90%, but it was however higher than the 284,000 tourists registered in February.

Amid stricter travel restrictions in place with Britain, French tourists replaced Britons as the most numerous in Spain compared to a year earlier. More than 109,000 French visited Spain in March, while only 18,000 Britons came.

Tourists spent 513 million euros ($618 million) during that month, also 76% less than in March 2021, INE said.

The number of foreign tourists who visited Spain in 2020 fell by more than 80% to a level not seen in half a century as a result of travel restrictions imposed globally to curb the spread of coronavirus contagion.

($1 = 0.8300 euros)

(Bloomberg) --

Air France-KLM is considering raising more capital to repair its battered balance sheet as the struggling carrier counts on a summer air-travel resurgence to stem losses.

Equity and quasi-equity financial instruments are being studied, the airline said Thursday in a statement as it reported a first quarter operating loss of 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion). Shareholders will be asked later this month to approve proposals that would potentially raise billions of euros.

The money could help lower long-term debt that totaled 14.2 billion euros at the end of the first quarter, levels that Chief Executive Officer Ben Smith has said were “holding back our balance sheet.” He signaled last month that a further recapitalization may be necessary after the airline group’s latest rescue from the French government.

In the coming months, Air France-KLM is counting on global vaccination campaigns to revive consumer demand for travel. It predicted losses this quarter would be on a par with the previous three months, when restrictions on movement remained and empty planes fueled cash burn.

“There is still a long road ahead,” Chief Financial Officer Frederic Gagey said on a call with journalists. “There is a very small risk of a cash crisis” unless the summer season turns “catastrophic.”

Capacity Plans

Air France-KLM plans to offer about 50% of 2019 network capacity this quarter and 55% to 65% during the following period, according to the statement. That’s only slightly higher than the roughly 48% achieved during the first quarter, when Covid-19 surged and many countries slammed shut their borders.

The carrier has survived the coronavirus pandemic only through massive state aid from France and the Netherlands, which together now own about 38% of the airline. Last month, Air France-KLM raised 1.04 billion euros in a new share issue as part of a 4-billion-euro French rescue plan. The move followed 10.4 billion euros in government loans and guarantees granted last year.

Gagey declined to put a figure on how much more the carrier plans to raise, saying only that part of it could come from the Dutch government, which is still in talks with the European Commission on a rescue for KLM.

He called the fundraising process “recycling of state aid,” meaning that it’s progressively transformed into instruments that can be traded on the market so as to reduce the company’s leverage. This is part of the state exit strategy that the European Commission requires, he said.

The carrier’s 8.5 billion euros of available liquidity and credit lines at the end of March “can be considered comfortable, given the expected recovery in the summer,” Air France-KLM said in the statement.

That position dwindled from 9.8 billion euros at the end of 2020 and 12.4 billion euros three months earlier.

Still, cash outflows slowed to 1.3 billion euros in the latest quarter, from 2.1 billion euros in the fourth quarter of last year.

Lufthansa’s Plan

Rival Deutsche Lufthansa AG has also relied on state aid to get through the health crisis and its shareholders this week approved a capital raise of up to 5.5 billion euros.

The German carrier has reined in capacity plans for the year, expecting to offer 40% of pre-pandemic levels following a 19% showing in the first quarter. British Airways owner IAG SA is set to report results on Friday.

One bright spot for Air France-KLM in recent months has been higher demand for cargo, which generated an 80% increase in first quarter revenue to 839 million euros.

Earnings Highlights

• First-quarter revenue fell 57% to 2.2 billion euros
• Air France-KLM first-quarter loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization surged more than 10-fold from a year earlier to 627 million euros.
• Net debt was 12.6 billion euros end-March vs 11 billion euros end-2020
• Net quarterly loss shrank 18% to 1.5 billion euros

BY  Angus Whitley, Siddharth Philip and Layan Odeh

People sit in the outdoor dining area of a restaurant in Saint Croix, Virgin Islands, U.S., on Sunday, March 28, 2021. Across the Caribbean, the impact of COVID-19 on the travel and tourism industry has been very apparent, the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) said in a report. 2020 saw a 65.5 percent drop in tourist arrivals to the Caribbean. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is spearheading a nascent revival in overseas air travel as people jump at the chance to fly to destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean without quarantines or other Covid-related restrictions.

New York to Santo Domingo and Santiago de los Caballeros, the two biggest cities in the Dominican Republic, are among the world’s busiest overseas routes this year, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. Neither made the top 10 before the pandemic. Orlando to San Juan in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico sits at second-busiest overall, behind Moscow to Simferopol, in the disputed Crimea region.

Seven of the 10 most-active international city pairs feature U.S. links, suggesting one of the world’s most-advanced inoculation programs is uncorking demand that’s been building for a year. The U.S. domestic market, unfettered by border restrictions, should return to almost normal levels by July, travel data provider OAG says.

While President Joe Biden hasn’t yet acted to lift entry restrictions on visitors, Americans are going to places they can easily get to — like Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands, where they don’t necessarily need a passport, though a negative Covid-19 test is required. The Dominican Republic opened to tourists in July and offers U.S. travelers in-hotel tests before they return home. It has dropped a requirement for a negative test on arrival.

Mexico is open to quarantine-free air travel from the U.S. and doesn’t require a negative test, though visitors need one to return home after trips to popular holiday spots such as Cancun. While the test requirement threatened to hurt bookings, discount airline Volaris responded by subsidizing the extra cost. The move helped sustain a growth surge that has led the carrier to become Mexico's biggest during the crisis, with capacity levels that exceeded pre-pandemic levels as early as December.

More Than 1.17 Billion Shots Given: Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker

What’s Happening in Air Travel This Week

Globally, air travel is recovering in fits and starts as vaccine drives progress at a disjointed pace and governments tighten border rules to address flare-ups. Overall capacity inched ahead this week but still hovers at around 57% of 2019 levels, based on Bloomberg’s weekly flight tracker, which uses OAG data to monitor the pulse of the global air-travel comeback.

While the U.S. and Western Europe make plans for  summer reopenings, countries are cutting ties with India: Australia barred even its own citizens from returning home from the stricken nation. Quarantine-free travel bubbles are seen as a way to pry open links, yet they have proved fragile too. Hong Kong and Singapore now have a May 26 start date after earlier delays, though a growing virus cluster in Singapore poses a fresh threat.

The paucity of international flight paths has inevitably concentrated demand on the relatively few places that are open. Many of the most popular Latin American routes out of the U.S. have more flights now than in 2019. With major international markets still closed, overseas travel will be dominated by short flights “for some time,” said John Grant, chief analyst at OAG. 

Green Shoots in Europe?

Airlines in Western Europe have added flights to warmer destinations like Greece and Cyprus, as governments ease lockdowns with summer approaching. Capacity to Greece has jumped by almost 50% in the past four weeks, as it forms bubbles with countries that have had robust vaccine roll-outs and are deemed safe. There were week-to-week capacity gains of 10% or more in Spain, Italy and Germany, where a vaccine drive is gaining pace, according to OAG. 

The U.K. has plans to reopen to leisure travel in mid-May, with a Green List of least-restricted countries likely to include Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Iceland, along with some Caribbean destinations, according to the head of London’s Heathrow airport. Details could be announced this week.

American Tourists May Be Allowed in London as Soon as May

Like Greece and Cyprus, Russia and Ukraine have also seen boosts as they loosen rules and attempt to attract tourists.  The two countries have recovered almost 90% and 80% of 2019 capacity, respectively. Others, like Kazakhstan and Iran, are close to 2019 levels as well. Ukrainian charter and commercial-flight operator SkyUp Airlines has tapped the opportunity, expanding its network to Belgrade in Serbia, Almaty in Kazakhstan and the Georgian Black Sea resort of Batumi.

Still, there’s a long way to go. The top 10 international routes prior to the pandemic, like London-to-Amsterdam, have disappeared from the rankings altogether. The busiest routes globally are all domestic connections, primarily in Asia, according to Cirium — including the world’s most-flown route, between Seoul and the South Korean holiday island of Jeju. Even there, the volume of flights has dropped 20%.

In Australia and New Zealand, a new travel bubble has helped to boost traffic at Qantas Airways Ltd. and Air New Zealand Ltd., while Virgin Australia Airlines Pty, in the hands of private equity after a bout with insolvency, and Regional Express Holdings Ltd., have also seen a benefit from a domestic travel boom.

The potential Hong Kong-Singapore bubble, originally planned to start last November, could also release pent-up demand. While cases remain low in both Asian financial hubs, each has taken an extremely cautious approach to opening its borders. If their air link comes to pass, it would show momentum can build even in places with the tightest controls on entry.

Ontario is scheduled to break out of its stay-at-home order on May 20, but health experts say we're likely not going to be ready, especially if we don't want to end up back in another pandemic wave.

The Ontario government strengthened rules three times in April, all as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surged.

Those sweeping changes started less than two months after eastern Ontario came out of the winter shutdown.

"When we saw cases dipping in February, people said 'Oh, these are the dying embers of the second wave,' but in fact they were also at the same time the sparks of a third wave," said Dr. Gerald Evans, an infectious disease specialist at Queen's University and Kingston Health Sciences Centre.

That, he said, is why it's important to be cautious when loosening restrictions.

"This is really a lesson that we need to have learned … from the previous [waves]."

Instead of putting a specific date on when the order should end, he said new COVID-19 cases need to drop significantly to below a rate of 20 per 100,000 people per week, or what used to be Ontario's yellow zone.

To put that in perspective, Ontario was at 166.6 on May 1 and Ottawa was at 102.9 as of Wednesday. Two weeks ago Ottawa's number was near 180. It hasn't been around 20 since late November.

Could parts of eastern Ontario drop that low by May 20? Probably not, according to Evans, but it's possible some regions — like Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties, with a rate around 30 — could reach it by the end of the month.

The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) is currently in the low 50s and the Kingston area is in the mid-40s.

EOHU Medical Officer of Health Dr. Paul Roumeliotis said earlier this week he would at least like to see the order extended through the May 24 long weekend to avoid holiday gatherings and spread.

Wastewater still high

One of Ottawa's telling coronavirus signs is in the city's poop.

The viral load in the city's wastewater has decreased, but is still two to three times higher than it was last summer and continues to hover around the January peak.

"When we go up, it's [a quite sharp] increase, but when we come down it's a very slow trailing off," said Tyson Graber, a scientist on Ottawa's coronavirus wastewater monitoring program.

He said this time around it's "stubborn" and keeps plateauing.

Part of that may be due to more contagious variants of concern, which made up more than three-quarters of the signal as of May 1.

A more normal summer

Besides the variants, another thing this wave and shutdown has had that others haven't is widespread vaccinations. That will make a big difference if measures stay in place, according to Evans.

If people can hold out a bit longer, he said the start of summer could look much closer to normal.

"The longer the lockdown is in place and stay-at-home orders are in place, then the bigger bang for our buck we're going to get from vaccination."