South Africa's Cemair looks to up-gauge for rapid expansion

Mozambique's LAM talks fleet growth as market recovers

Air Botswana's E170 returns to service after safety alert

Air Botswana (BP, Gaborone) has announced the reinstatement into commercial service of its ERJ 170-100LR, A2-ABM (msn 17000318), saying that safety inspections ordered by the local regulator had "resulted in zero findings".

"In order to allay the safety concerns raised about the aircraft, it is worth noting that inspections carried out resulted in zero findings and that the aircraft is fit for commercial operation as of today, May 27. The authority has been appraised of the successful completion of the inspections carried out, and they have since reinstated the Certificate of Airworthiness of the aircraft," the national carrier said in a statement.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB) had announced in a statement on May 25 that it had grounded the jet and suspended its Certificate of Worthiness until Air Botswana satisfactorily carried out all inspections and tasks recommended by Embraer and the regulator and it was deemed fit for release into service. "The grounding was necessitated by the regulator's concerns over a series of recurring problems surrounding the aircraft," it had...

Editorial Comment: Updated with E170 returning to commercial service on May 27. - 27.05.2022 - 15:15 UTC

Mozambique's LAM aims to break-even by 2023

South African airlines welcome licensing council appointment

South African airlines have welcomed the long-awaited re-constitution of the country's two air service licensing councils after a year-long hiatus during which no new license or route applications could be processed.

The Cabinet, in a statement on March 10, announced the appointment of five members each to the International Air Services Council and its domestic counterpart Air Services Licensing Council.

"We greatly welcome the news. We have many outstanding applications and look forward to further expansion into Africa," commented Comair (South Africa) Chief Executive Officer Glenn Orsmond.

"We are very pleased that the councils have been appointed. It's good for South Africa because it means that we can now take full advantage of deploying airlines upon the various routes available to us by virtue of our bilateral agreements, which is ultimately good for the South African economy. We are excited to see that the councils are back in play," agreed FlySafair Executive Manager and Chief Marketing Officer Kirby Gordon.

South African airlines were forced to put their regional expansion plans on hold for an...