Gabonese gov't pushes ahead with new national carrier plans ch-aviation PRO exclusive

Royal Air Maroc (AT, Casablanca Int'l) has taken delivery of its first of four B787-9s on order from Boeing (BOE, Chicago O'Hare). CN-RAM (msn 64625) was handed over during a ceremony held at Everett on Tuesday, December 11, ahead of its ferry flight to Casablanca Int'l.

Preliminary schedule data indicates RAM will start B787-9 operations on December 21 with a 4x weekly service from its Casablanca Int'l hub to New York JFK. This will then be followed by a 3x weekly service to each of Algiers and Montréal Trudeau both starting on December 22, and finally a weekly flight to São Paulo Guarulhos starting February 3, 2019.

Royal Air Maroc already operates five B787-8s and will use the incoming -9s to replace its current fleet of three B767-300(ER)s.

MNG Airlines (MB, Istanbul Atatürk) has started flights to the United States following the launch of a 2x weekly Cologne/Bonn, Germany to New York JFK return service last week. Operations are onboard the Turkish carrier's only A330-200(F).

Until this development, MNG's route network had focussed primarily on connecting its Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen and Istanbul Atatürk hubs with cities across Western Europe and the Middle East using a fleet that also includes five A300-600R(F)s.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, the most prolific operator of scheduled non-express cargo flights between Europe and the US is Lufthansa with 28 departures per week followed by Cargolux with 16, Qatar Airways with 12, CAL Cargo Air Lines with 9, and AirBridge Cargo with 5. MNG's Turkish compatriot, Turkish Airlines, operates two flights per week.

ANA - All Nippon Airways (NH, Tokyo Haneda) has refused to settle a class action for transpacific price fixing between 2000 and 2007 and will now go to court. According to the law firms representing the plaintiffs, another twelve airlines settled in the same case.

ANA continues to deny liability for the alleged participation in the price-fixing cartel.

The class-action lawsuit involves any passenger who bought tickets to, from or via Japan from ANA or JAL - Japan Airlines between February 1, 2005, and December 31, 2007, with a fuel surcharge included or, alternatively, purchased a ticket for a special Satogaeri ("coming home") fare between January 1, 2000, and April 1, 2006.

The proceedings are led by the US District Court in the Northern District of California. The next court hearing is not expected until at least February 10, 2019 - passengers included in the class action suit have until this day to exclude themselves from further proceedings.

The airline which previously chose to settle the case include Air New Zealand, Air...

Gabon Airlines (GY, Libreville) is officially in liquidation after a Libreville court issued a directive to dispose of the defunct carrier's assets, the Gabonese Review has reported. As the official successor to Air Gabon (GN, Libreville) and its still-borne Royal Air Maroc-aligned successor, Air Gabon International (Libreville), Gabon Airlines was founded in 2007 by private investors, banks and insurers with its CEO Christian Bongo Ondimba, a son of former Gabonese strongman Omar Bongo. Initial operations between Libreville and Paris CDG took place on 11 April 2007 using a B767-200(ER) and an A340-300, CS-TQM (c/n 117) on lease from Hi Fly (5K, Lisbon). However, difficulties were soon encountered with the airline posting significant losses over the following four years. Flights ceased in 2011 while in 2012, the carrier lost its Air Operators Certificate. Among the assets that have since been disposed of include the 767-200(ER), TR-LHP (msn 21877), which had been grounded in Addis Ababa since 2007 over an unpaid debt to Ethiopian Airlines (ET,...