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aviationlatest news & developments
Qantas has launched a flight that will travel between Johannesburg and Perth without any stops.

Qantas launches new non-stop flight between Johannesburg and Perth

The service, which will operate three times a week, cuts travel time to under ten hours and provides the fastest connection between South Africa and Western Australia

FlySafair said the price of jet fuel at local airports rose by about 70% in just one week, following a surge in global oil prices.
(Wikimedia commons)

Flysafair reaches wage deal with pilots, ending strike

According to union Solidarity, pilots will receive salary increases of between 6% and 6.9% over the next four years

The Durban Aerotropolis Master Plan includes the Durban Aerotropolis at the Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone near King Shaka International Airport.

Aerotropolis: A redefined urban development model for economic growth

Airports can be integrated into urban planning, taking them beyond transport hubs to centres of prosperity, innovation and industrial expansion

Liberalising aviation policies, including easing outdated ownership and capitalisation regulations, would boost Africa’s growth

Africa’s aviation sector needs open-skies agreements

Liberalising aviation policies, including easing outdated ownership and capitalisation regulations, would boost Africa’s growth

The continent will make significant gains by fast-tracking the aviation sector. (Photo by Fabrizio Gandolfo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Aviation can give wings to Africa’s economy

The continent will make significant gains by fast-tracking this sector through investment and skills development

The Director of Civil Aviation, Poppy Khoza

Confirmed: South African aviation is among the best in the world!

How safe is our country’s state of aviation?

Grounded: A British Airways plane at OR Tambo International Airport. Comair could not be rescued and SAA is still building up its number of flights. Photos: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg/Getty Images/ Bloomberg

After Comair, how will the South African aviation industry fare?

Local ticket prices have risen by at least 35% to 40% as a result of Comair’s collapse

It’s a history littered with lessons and crumbs of what was to become the SAA privatised. (Oupa Nkosi)

SAA to revive Durban route

The beleaguered national carrier resumed flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town last September after exiting business rescue

Theoneste Bagosora, a former Rwandan army colonel, widely regarded as the architect of the 1994 genocide, died in a hospital in Mali last weekend.(Photo credit should read TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images)

Africa in brief: 25 September – 2 October

In the round-up: The ‘architect’ of the Rwandan 1994 genocide dies; the Nigerian government kills its citizens and the Twitter ban is lifted

Running costs: SAA’s new majority shareholder Takatso said while the transaction was not concluded, due diligence was ‘substantially complete’

SAA takes to the skies again after 18 months grounded

After an 18-month hiatus, the national carrier has done away with major routes that would have required it to use much larger fleets

Harith General Partners, one half of the consortium that will take over SAA, has come under scrutiny since the announcement of the national carrier’s new majority shareholder.

SAA: PIC allegations are Harith’s albatross

Sipho Makhubela assures that the private equity firm has what it takes to raise the capital to get SAA flying again

(Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

SAA 2.0 hopes to start lean and grow from next year

Draft agreement document spells out that R1.5-billion will be needed to fund severance packages for 2 400 of the airline’s employees

The SALT, like the SKA, is in the Northern Cape. New rules mean aircraft may have to avoid the area. (Mujahid Safodien/AFP)

SKA could add time to flight path

The aviation sector is worried that rules about the radio spectrum in the skies above the project could affect the Jo’burg to Cape Town route

(Jason Redmond/Reuters)

Ethiopian Airlines ‘has flown’ black boxes of crashed Boeing to Paris

Ethiopian Airlines said Thursday that the black box flight recorders from the Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed have been flown to Paris for analysis.

No end date has been put on the order

US bans laptops, tablets on flights from Turkey and Arab world

Senior US officials told reporters that nine airlines from eight countries had been told to ban any device bigger than a cellphone or smartphone

A prototype “parcelcopter” or modified drone belonging to German group Deutsche Post DHL flies in front of the company’s headquarters in Bonn in December 2013.

The aviation authority says a drone licence isn’t onerous. What about hidden charges?

A flight training course costs up to R28 500 while setting up a commercial operation can amount to R80 000.

Kenya Airways and South African Airlines planes at sunset in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Think African jets are flying coffins? These numbers will prove you wrong

Carriers in the region have generally taken home a poor safety report card. Don’t write them off yet: there is real hope for the $70-billion industry.

Angelo Fick

Chinese cadets take to sunny skies and braais

Aviation is booming in China, but there aren’t many places to train. So, hello Oudtshoorn.

s a revamped operation, Eswatini Air said it was taking a cautious approach to ensure a smooth entry in the market by introducing its service in four phases.

Reach for the sky: How aviation can help Africa soar

Liberalised air transport regulations on the continent would lead to lower prices, more jobs and stronger economic growth, a study has found.

High-tech aircraft engine designer and manufacturer Adept Airmotive is being liquidated.

Tech agency ‘crashed’ aviation firm

Adept Airmotive says it is being stripped for parts by the same state agency that left it high and dry.