EgyptAir unveils plans for massive African growth

Qatar Airways to restart Egypt flights

Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad Int'l) restarts scheduled passenger services to Cairo Int'l on January 18, 2021, and to Alexandria Borg el Arab the week later after Egypt formalised the end of its ban on the Qatari carrier.

Services to the Egyptian capital will operate daily and to Alexandria 2x weekly. EgyptAir (MS, Cairo Int'l) has also pledged to shortly restart daily services to Doha Hamad Int'l.

Qatar Airways resumed flights to Saudi Arabia, the leader of the blockade coalition, on January 11, 2021. It has yet to announce when it will resume flights to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which also took part in the embargo.

Qatar Airways Group Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said during a recent CAPA Live event that despite the reopening of its core regional markets, it would retain services launched during the 3.5-year-long boycott as an alternative. Prior to the June 2017 development, Saudi Arabia alone was responsible for around 20% of Qatar Airways' total capacity.

Air Arabia...

Qatar Airways resumes use of Saudi, UAE, Bahrain airspace

Following the lifting of a three-and-a-half-year-old embargo against Qatar, Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad Int'l) has outlined plans to resume flights to Saudi Arabia having earlier resumed flights through its airspace.

Last week, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates announced reopening their respective borders and airspaces to Qatari-flagged aircraft for the first time since June 2017.

In terms of flight paths, the Qatari carrier has now resumed flights through Saudi and Emirati airspace but has only confirmed the resumption of flights to Saudi Arabia. Bahrain reopened its airspace to Qatari traffic on January 11. The private Egyptian newspaper, Al-Shorouk, quoted sources as saying that the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation had received a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday regarding the reopening of Egyptian airspace to Qatar, and allowing flights between the two countries. The sources suggested the decision could take effect from 0000L on Tuesday, January 12, with the first EgyptAir (MS, Cairo Int'l) flights to resume later in the week.

In a statement, Qatar Airways...

Airbus's December 2020 order book changes revealed

Chad orders suspension of all scheduled pax flights

Chad has suspended all international and domestic passenger flights for a renewable period of one week from midnight on January 4, 2021, according to a decree issued by Sebgue Nandeh, Minister of Civil Aviation and National Meteorology.

The measure is aimed at containing a rise in COVID-19 cases in N'Djamena, the Chadian capital. Cargo flights will not be affected, according to a notice by the civil aviation authority of Chad (Autorité de l'Aviation Civile du Tchad - ADAC), which is responsible for enforcing the order.

According to the ch-aviation schedules module, at least seven airlines are affected by the ban including Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa), which serves N'Djamena from Addis Ababa and Douala, while Tchadia Airlines (CDO, N'Djamena) connects N'Djamena with Abéché, Moundou, Sarh, and Faya-Largeau. Sky Mali (ML, Bamako) serves the Chadian capital from Bamako, Jeddah, and Niamey. Air France (AF, Paris CDG) operates to N'Djamena from Paris CDG and Bangui. The capital is...