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(Bloomberg) -- Airlines were forced to divert some flights after Niger restricted its airspace on Sunday night, making it more difficult for planes to fly across parts of Africa.

British Airways was one of the carriers affected by Niger’s partial closure of airspace, with at least five flights to and from its London hubs diverting — including services from Nairobi, Cape Town and flights to and from Johannesburg. Air France, KLM and Deutsche Lufthansa AG also saw services diverted or delayed. 

BA confirmed in social media posts that some flights, including one from London Heathrow to Johannesburg, had been diverted because of the airspace closure over Niger. 

“We’ve apologised to those customers affected for the disruption to their journeys,” BA said in a statement. “Our teams are working hard to get them on their way again as quickly as possible.”

An Air France spokesman said via email that the airline has suspended all services to Niger until further notice, and to Mali and Burkina Faso until August 11. The carrier also said longer flight times of between 15 minutes and 2 hours were to be expected to and from several sub-Saharan destinations. 

The sudden airspace closure in Niger makes it harder for airlines flying between Europe and southern Africa, adding an hour or more on to certain routes, according to tracking service FlightRadar24.

There are also airspace restrictions over Sudan and Libya, meaning commercial aircraft cannot fly over. This means airlines need to extend flight times and cater for more fuel.

Read More: Niger Closes Its Airspace as It Warns of a Foreign Attack

Some flights were already en-route when the airspace closed, causing them to make a diversion or reroute, per FlightRadar24.

Niger’s junta restricted access to the country’s airspace Sunday, citing warnings of an attack from foreign powers as a deadline issued by West African neighbors — warning they could intervene to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum — expired.

The junta that took power in a July 26 coup has rejected all calls to restore democracy and warned against any foreign interference. Hundreds of protesters gathered in the capital, Niamey on Sunday, in support of the coup leaders. 

Niger’s airspace restrictions will remain in place until further notice, according to a statement from the junta on state television on Sunday.

--With assistance from Katarina Hoije.

(Updates with comment from Air France in fifth paragraph.)

Musa Nuhu, director-general of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), says airlines must have strong financial capacity and a minimum of six aircraft to be allowed to operate in the country.

Nuhu spoke during a virtual meeting with aviation correspondents over the weekend.

He said the major problems facing domestic airline operation is due to lack of capacity to overcome challenges.

The director-general said the new policy is not only for new startups but also for existing operators, adding that existing operators have been given a deadline to comply with the policy.

Prior to now, domestic airline operators are required to have at least three airworthy aircraft before commencing operation.

“The problem is that a lot of the airlines don’t even have the capacity to meet current financial obligations,” Nuhu said.

“If you have three aircraft for instance and you lose one out of it, it has become a problem to meet up with your operations. Then, you start to have issues of flight delays, cancellations and all that.

“The number of aircraft you will have will depend on the kind of operations you want to do. You can imagine somebody who comes in with just one or two aircraft and one of the aircraft goes out of business, and sells tickets to the passengers, thinking of what will happen.

“For you to have six aircraft, it shows you have a very strong financial background of running an airline.

“It is not only for new entrants, but the old ones too have a period by which they have to comply. If everybody has one or two aircraft, we will keep having this recurring problem. We have to avoid that.

“People will criticise, but every country is different. We have to look at our own peculiar history and try and come up with solution, but regulations are not cast in stone.

“If the situation changes, the regulation would be reviewed accordingly. Whenever it is necessary, we don’t have to wait for five years before we make amendments.”

‘MORE AIRCRAFT IN NIGERIA’S REGISTRY THAN THE ENTIRE WEST AFRICAN’

Nuhu further said Nigeria has many airlines but only a few of them are operating with an insufficient number of aircraft.

The NCAA boss said any airline that could afford to acquire six aircraft has the financial capacity to operate scheduled service.

He added that with such capacity, it would not go under after a few years, while still having its name in the NCAA registry.

“There are more aircraft in Nigeria’s registry than the entire West Africa. The number of airlines, air operator certificate (AOC), airports and co. they have, are not as much as we have in Nigeria. It is very huge, complex, and there are huge demands to cope with in the industry,” Nuhu added.

“From records, about 12 years ago, we had only 16 AOCs, right now, we have 32, out of which 12 are scheduled operators.

“We cannot keep operating the way we are operating. Changes have to come in and we have started the process.

“We are acquiring a regulatory software and in the next one or two weeks, we are going to be ready with the software and training of our staff is going to start on the use of the software. 

“We are going to make sure that 80 percent to 90 percent of NCAA processes are automated and also third parties are going to be automated.”

(Bloomberg) -- Thai Airways International Pcl and Turkish Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday with the aim of forming a joint-venture partnership and working together on keenly-contested Asia-Europe routes. 

Airline partnerships typically involve coordinating schedules and sharing revenue. Qantas Airways Ltd. and Emirates, for example, collaborate on Europe-Australia services. Tie-ups require approval from competition authorities.

Read More: Earnings Surge for Main Thai Airlines as Tourists Flock Back

An agreement would help the carriers expand their networks. Thai Airways said it plans to launch daily flights between Bangkok and Istanbul, with a start date for the service to be announced Wednesday. Turkish Airlines already flies twice daily to the Thai capital.

Thailand’s national carrier is still under court-monitored debt restructuring after filing for bankruptcy protection in 2020, when Covid added further strain to an airline that had already suffered multiple losses over a decade. It now operates about 65 aircraft compared with over 100 before the pandemic. 

Chief Executive Officer Chai Eamsiri told told Bloomberg News in June that the company plans to order more jets, including 30 widebodies. 

Read More: Turkish Air Says It’s About Two Months Away From Mega Jet Order 

Thai Airways and Turkish Airlines are members of the Star Alliance, which has 26 members including Singapore Airlines Ltd., United Airlines Holdings Inc., Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and ANA Holdings Inc.. Founded in 1997, the Star Alliance is the biggest of the three major global airline groupings, which aim to help carriers better compete commercially as part of a larger bloc.

Air Peace has again achieved another milestone by being the first Nigerian airline to operate a nonstop, direct flight to Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbeans.

The airline’s Boeing 777 aircraft with Registration Number 5N-BW1 departed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport around 14:00hrs on August 5, 2023 on a special business trip to Antigua and Barbuda.

Stanley Olisa, spokesperson of Air Peace, disclosed that the flight concretises the airline’s relationship with the government of Antigua and Barbuda and signals more possibilities of socio-economic payoffs for Nigeria and the Caribbean nation.

Read also: 7 movies to watch in August on Netflix

Noting that the flight is not an inaugural flight, Olisa stated that Air Peace is looking to commence scheduled commercial flights into the two-island country and wants Nigerian investors to see the investment opportunities that abound in Antigua and Barbuda, especially in the area of tourism, and factoring her conducive business environment.

Olisa added that tourism is a major revenue earner for Antigua and Barbuda and hinted that the special flight which departed on Saturday is a 4-day trip featuring a key business conference for strategic discourses on investment opportunities, networking and other planned recreational activities around the Antigua Carnival.

Read also:La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort heads for Antigua and Barbuda

It can be recalled that in the last couple of months, there have been media reports about Air Peace being in high-level talks with the government of Antigua and Barbuda over aviation investment in their country. This flight to Antigua confirms these news publications.

British Airways passengers on an Airbus A380 from Johannesburg to London Heathrow went on a 10-hour “flight to nowhere” when Niger’s airspace was suddenly closed late on Sunday night.

Other flights between the UK and South Africa have being re-routed or diverted to take on extra fuel or have returned to their starting points as a result of the closure.

After a military coup ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, the Ecowas regional bloc has threatened intervention to restore the leader.

In response, the ruling junta, led by General Abdourahmane Tchiani, closed the vast country – which is six times the area of Great Britain – to overflying aircraft.

The closure took effect at 11.22pm British time on Sunday, when several UK-South Africa flights were already airborne.

Airspace over Sudan and Libya is already closed to commercial aviation. The addition of Niger means there is now a block to north-south flights across Africa stretching around 2,600 miles from western Niger to the Red Sea.

British Airways flight BA56 from Johannesburg flew as far as Chad before turning back to its starting point. It was operated by an Airbus A380 “SuperJumbo”, with space for nearly 500 passengers.

Flight BA64 from Nairobi to Heathrow took a similar path, turning back after three hours to return to the Kenyan capital.

British Airways flight BA58 from Cape Town to London Heathrow was also diverted via Lagos. It took off as normal early on Sunday evening and followed a normal track over Namibia, Angola, Gabon, Cameroon and Nigeria.

LAGOS – Nine years after it commenced sched­uled operations, Azman Air has finally stopped operations.

But, Mr. Nurudden Aliyu, the Spokesman of Azman Air, said the management only suspended its op­erations due to its inability to return its four aircraft back to service.

Sources close to the airline confid­ed in Daily Independent that its failure to access foreign exchange and high charges may have compelled the man­agement to finally shut operations, saying more airlines may follow suit. ­

The sources confided in Daily Independent that Alha­ji Abdulmunaf Yunusa, the Chairman of Azman Air, had already informed the Nige­ria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) of its decision to cease operations forthwith.

However, Azman Air still has a valid Air Operator’s Cer­tificate (AOC) with the NCAA, which expires at the end of August.

According to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig. CARs), on AOC issuance, any operator that fails to renew its certificate would lose it after 90 days, while NCAA can go ahead to suspend such an airline.

After sometime, the NCAA also has the power to revoke such a licence.

Daily Independent learnt that Yunusa who is also the President, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), had conveyed the position to cease operations to NCAA through a letter, which was addressed to Capt. Musa Nuhu, the Director-General Civil Aviation (DGCA).

It was also gathered that the NCAA management had been having a marathon meet­ing with the management of Azman Air since Tuesday on its decision to quit operations.

The sources claimed that Yunusa, in the letter, told the NCAA that he was tired of running the business due to the myriads of challenges he was confronted with since the airline was established.

One of them said: “Azman Air has finally thrown in the towel. Its Chairman, Alhaji Ab­dulmunaf Yunusa, has already informed the NCAA that he was tired of running the airline. The airline has been in troubled wa­ters for many months. It has sus­pended operations more than three times in the last one year.

“The fact is that more aviation professionals will become jobless as a result of this decision. Re­member that the airline suspend­ed flight operations about four months ago due to its inability to return its Boeing 737 aircraft that went for maintenance abroad more than six months.”

When Daily Independent contacted Mr. Nurudden Aliyu, the Public Relations Manager, Azman Air, he debunked the cessation claim.

Aliyu, however, said that the airline suspended operations a few months ago due to its failure to return its four aircraft that went on maintenance in and out of the country.

According to him, two of its airplanes are stuck in Turkey, while the other two remained in Nigeria.

Aliyu, however, assured that the airline would return to service by October, hoping that two of the airplanes in Turkey would have returned to service, while the other two would re­turn later in the same month.

He also told Daily Indepen­dent that the airline would today hold a meeting with the Directorate of Air Transport Regulations (DATR) of NCAA, assuring that the carrier would return to service.

He said: “We are not ceasing our operations. We only sus­pended it. We have pulled out four of our airplanes for main­tenance. We had hoped that they will return immediately, but since we could not get them back, we had to send our staff on leave of absence. But we are coming back, I can assure you of that.”

Recall that NCAA had in the last two years suspended Azman Air’s operations for var­ious reasons, which included its N1.2 billion debt to NCAA.

The airline had to sign a Memorandum of Understand­ing (MoU) with NCAA in the first quarter of 2022 on how it would be paying back the said amount.

The airline had accused it of non-remittance of Ticket Sale Charge and Cargo Sale Charge (TSC/CSC).

Just on August 3, 2023, a memo, signed by Magaji Mis­au, its Human Resource Man­ager, with the title, ‘Placement of Leave without Pay,’ asked all of staff to proceed on leave with an exception of an under listed eight names.

The letter read in part: “As you are aware, our domestic op­erations has been put on hold for a while due to the conveyance of our aircraft for C-checks and the MROs has given a longer time of completion.

“In view of the above, the management directed to write and communicate its decision that all staff have been placed on leave without pay with effect from August 1, 2023.”

Azman Air commenced op­erations in 2014.

BY  Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Following the recently introduced civil aviation regulation, requiring a minimum of six aircraft for start-ups and existing airlines, local carriers may be seen entering partnerships, mergers and engaging in acquisitions in a bid to remain in the market.

Air Peace is set to commence direct flight operations from Nigeria to Houston, the United States, and London before the end of the year. In furtherance to the commitment towards dominating the West African sub-region, the airline is also eyeing operations to Cotonou, Benin Republic, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo, Kinshasa and Malabo in Equatorial Guinea.

However, while announcing the kick-off operation during the reception to honour Nigeria sports heroes of Nigeria’s 1976 Olympics Games and 1980 AFCON National football teams in Lagos, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Air Peace, Allen Onyema, stated that Houston and London flights will commence in October 2023.

According to Onyema, the Ministry of Aviation recently contacted him on the Houston and London flights after a meeting held with the government and officials of the aviation authorities.

“And now London is beckoning before October or there about. Just recently the minister of Aviation contacted me in Houston just about a few days ago about the meeting they held in Houston and they are now calling on Air Peace to do that route, both America and wherever we are flying.

“We can do more legacy routes like Atlanta, New York when international aero politics permits. We are very ready and these routes are coming very soon.

“Other African and international routes will follow subsequently. We can fly anywhere in the world.
“We are currently flying to Guangzhou China, Johannesburg, Mumbai India, Jeddah, and Tel Aviv,” Onyema added.

(Bloomberg) -- Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. is poised to launch its first private space tourists on Thursday morning, the company’s second commercial spaceflight and a long-awaited milestone in founder Richard Branson’s quest to build a “spaceline for Earth.”

The suborbital joyride from a New Mexico spaceport caps nearly two decades of development work and allows Virgin Galactic to finally begin clearing a backlog of roughly 800 ticket holders who have been waiting for rides to space. Virgin Galactic is competing against Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to sell trips to thrill-seekers looking to shed Earth’s gravity for a few minutes, the driving reason the company was first created.

The passengers include 80-year-old Jon Goodwin, a British former Olympian who has Parkinson’s Disease, as well as Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, a mother-daughter pair from the Caribbean who won their seats through a charity drawing. They’ll be joined by two pilots and a Virgin Galactic support astronaut. 

Virgin Galactic’s shares rose 1.2% to $3.42 as of 9:33 a.m. in New York. The stock was down nearly 3% this year through Wednesday and remains well below the highs of more than $55 in 2021. It was publicly listed through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in 2019.

A webcast of the flight is set to begin at 11 a.m. New York time.

The flight comes a little more than a month after Virgin Galactic finally kicked off commercial spaceflight operations. That first flight, Galactic 01, was strictly a research mission. It included a trio of researchers for the Italian Air Force, who tended to scientific payloads designed to take advantage of the microgravity environment of space.

Read more: The Virgin Galactic Crash and the Risks of Space Tourism

Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic originally promised to begin flying passengers as early as 2007. In those early days, tickets were sold for $200,000 and then upped to $250,000 while the company experienced delays. In 2014, a Virgin Galactic spaceplane crashed during a test flight, killing one test pilot and seriously injuring another, prompting the company to suspend ticket sales.

Virgin Galactic has experienced successes and failures since then. In 2018, the company reached space for the first time, and it made headlines in 2021 when it flew Branson to space. But after that flight, Virgin Galactic opted to stand down from space missions for nearly two years as it upgraded its vehicle fleet. It reopened ticket sales in 2022, that time for $450,000 a seat.

Loss Leader

Now, the company has a daunting backlog of customers to get through. But even as these passengers start to finally see space, Virgin Galactic says it will be a few years before it sees a profit from its missions.

The primary vehicle the company is flying at the moment is VSS Unity, a spaceplane that was unveiled back in 2016. While Unity will be used to perform monthly space trips, Virgin Galactic is focused on developing a new fleet of space vehicles called the Delta class. These ships, expected to enter operation as late as 2026, will be optimized for easier refurbishment and faster turnarounds between flights, allowing a higher frequency of trips each year.

“There’s a little bit of a loss leader here with Unity,” Mike Moses, president of spaceline missions and safety, said in a June interview. “But it’s important to demonstrate not only that we can do it, but to learn all the lessons to apply.”

Virgin Galactic doesn’t anticipate seeing meaningful revenue for years. The company projects only bringing in roughly $1 million in revenue in each of the last two quarters of the year. That revenue could be slightly higher if a research flight is thrown into the mix, as seats for those missions run around $600,000, the company said. 

Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier told Bloomberg News in June he is confident Virgin Galactic will be able to turn a profit if it can fly Delta on weekly trips to the edge of space.  

Though he acknowledges suborbital space tourism will be a “capacity-constrained business” for some time, he hopes that as more private astronauts fly, they will inspire more customers to sign up.

“We need to normalize this industry,” Colglazier said. “It’s not usual for your neighbor to go to space. But as we bring people through, that will become normalized.”

(Updates share trading in fourth paragraph)

(Bloomberg) -- Air Canada said it hedged about 30% of its jet fuel costs as it re-enters the oil derivatives market after about four years. 

The company hedged about 30% of its anticipated purchases of jet fuel for the third quarter using call options that have a fair value of $19 million, according to an earnings release.

The move marks a return to hedging for Air Canada, which, until 2019, routinely protected its fuel purchases. Airlines have been burned repeatedly in the past from their hedging practices, most recently during the pandemic, when several firms found themselves overprotected as passengers stayed home. But as oil prices have surged over the past year and travel demand boomed, those with coverage have reaped massive windfalls.  

The decision to hedge was opportunistic, with fuel prices having stabilized at lower levels than seen previously in the year, the company said on an earnings call Friday. Still, Air Canada is unlikely to hedge regularly going forward, the company said.