Malaysia Airlines inks A350, A330neo lease deal with ALC

Air Zimbabwe gears up for fleet, network growth

Things are looking up for Air Zimbabwe (UM, Harare Int'l) with the company set to exit business rescue on June 30, the government having released funds for the acquisition of a second EMB-145LR, and the airline resuming domestic and regional flights after having been grounded since January this year.

This has been confirmed to ch-aviation by Air Zimbabwe spokesperson Firstme Vitori. She confirmed a report by state broadcaster ZBC that administrator Tonderayi Brian Mukubvu, a partner at accounting firm Grant Thornton Zimbabwe, had successfully carried out his mandate of clearing the airline’s debts and expanding its fleet. “Since our appointment as judicial managers, we have successfully managed to clear local debts with creditors and also came up with terms for clearing debts with foreign creditors. We have since acquired new aircraft and the future of Air Zimbabwe looks very bright,” Mukubvu was quoted as saying. He was not immediately available when approached for comment by ch-aviation.

As previously reported, the Zimbabwean government last month declared it would settle the carrier's US-dollar era debts at...

ASEAN, EU agree on first bloc-to-bloc air transport accord

Unlimited flying between Southeast Asia and Europe will become possible following the conclusion of negotiations on the world’s first bloc-to-bloc comprehensive air transport agreement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU).

The parties now will submit the ASEAN-EU Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement (AE CATA) for legal scrubbing in preparation for signature at a later date to be confirmed.

Under the agreement, airlines of ASEAN and the EU will be allowed to fly any number of passenger and cargo services between and beyond both regions. In addition, they will also be able to fly up to 14 weekly passenger services, and any number of cargo services, via and beyond to any third country, the parties announced in a joint statement following the conclusion of a meeting on June 4, 2021.

They said the accord was aimed at rebuilding air connectivity between ASEAN and Europe, which has been decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and open up new growth opportunities for the aviation sectors in both regions. Both parties expressed the intent to maintain...

Belavia denies Crimea plans amidst Ukrainian threats

Russia consents to EU carriers bypassing Belarus airspace

After a brief aeropolitical standoff that led to the cancellation of three flights to Moscow last week, authorities in Russia have now approved all European Union-based carrier flight plans for Russia which bypass sanctioned Belarus.

Following the May 23 forced diversion of a Ryanair B737-800 to Minsk National while en route from Athens Int'l to Vilnius, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a non-binding safety information bulletin recommending all airlines bypass Belarus airspace. As all EU carriers started adhering to the bulletin, Moscow entered the tussle by rejecting three flight plans - two Air France flights from Paris CDG to Moscow Sheremetyevo and one Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna to Moscow Domodedovo - which were due to bypass Belarus.

However, Reuters has since reported that the dispute was resolved relatively quickly with all Belarus-bypassing flight plans now approved by Moscow.

Air France resumed services to the Russian capital on May 29 and Austrian Airlines on May 28. No other airline was affected by Moscow's...