Italy's Neos Air to launch longhaul flights from Poland

Italy's Neos Air to base wet-leased B737 at Bergamo

S. Africa's Airlink resumes Madagascar ops after ban lifted

Airlink (South Africa) (4Z, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) will restart scheduled services between Johannesburg O.R. Tambo and Antananarivo from January 30 following a decision by Madagascar to lift an effective three-year ban on commercial flights to/from South Africa.

Madagascar removed all Covid-19 travel restrictions on March 3, 2022, but continued to block all flights to/from South Africa, a ban extended on October 15, 2022, particularly affecting Airlink, the only scheduled operator on the route.

As confirmed by Madagascar's Council of Ministers on July 13, 2022, the reason was a dispute between Antananarivo and Pretoria over 73.5 kilograms of smuggled gold and USD20,000 seized at Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport on December 31, 2020, from three passengers who had arrived from Madagascar on a chartered flight.

The Malagasy government demanded the return of the treasure and the extradition of its nationals, now jailed in South Africa. The route to South Africa stayed closed pending the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two nations to combat the smuggling of national resources.

India's SpiceJet targets Italy for scheduled European debut

SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) is to commence scheduled passenger operations to Italy, its first destination in the European Union, with weekly roundtrip services between Amritsar - Milan Bergamo and Amritsar - Rome Fiumicino now showing as available on the airline's website. SpiceJet had formerly operated ad hoc charter flights to Italy.

SpiceJet's booking portal now shows weekly roundtrip services between Amritsar and Milan Bergamo as running on Saturdays throughout November before increasing to twice-weekly (Saturday and Tuesday) in December. The flights will be operated by a B737-8 and have a brief stop in Tbilisi, Georgia in both directions.

Similarly, SpiceJet will use a B737-8 on roundtrip services between Amritsar and Rome Fiumicino starting on November 11 before settling down to a Wednesday roundtrip service. These flights will also stop in Tbilisi in both directions. According to SpiceJet's schedules, the flights to Milan Bergamo and Rome Fiumicino will operate during daylight hours while the return sectors to India are overnight flights.

According to ch-aviation schedules data, only one other...

Croatia's ETF Airways eyes US ACMI/charter opportunities

ETF Airways (LI, Zagreb) plans to make its fleet of B737-800s available for charter and wet-lease services to the United States, regulatory filings reveal.

The Croatian charter/ACMI specialist has applied for a US foreign air carrier permit to provide charter flights ferrying persons, property, and mail to the US under the full extent permitted under the air transport agreement between Croatia and the US; and the European Community and the US.

It has also applied for exemption authority to allow it to provide the services for two years while its application is pending.

ETF Airways seeks authority to operate:

• from any point/s behind any EU member station/s, via any point/s in any EU member state, and via intermediate stations to any point/s in the US and beyond;
• foreign charters of cargo between any point/s in the US and any other point/s;
• other charters on prior approval under the DOT regulations;
• transport authorised by any additional route rights made available to EU carriers in the future.

The carrier received its...