Nigeria's Cally Air secures first B737

Germany's SundAir to switch A320s for A319s

Latvia's airBaltic to built MRO hangar for A220s at Riga

airBaltic (BT, Riga) plans to build a new hangar at Riga to maintain its fleet of twenty-five A220-300s, the airline announced.

Construction of the hangar is to start in 2022 and finish by the end of 2023, following a building rights agreement with Riga Airport signed in 2020.

According to initial plans, the portion of land earmarked for construction is 2.85 hectares. The hangar will span over 34,500 square metres. It will be able to provide simultaneous line- and base maintenance for seven A220-300s, and its services will be offered to other A220-300 operators. The project will be financed through commercial banks, according to a statement by the airline.

Owned 96.14% by the Latvian state with 3.86% by Lars Thuesen through his who4lly-owned Aircraft Leasing 1 SIA, airBaltic was the launch customer of the A220-300. It owns eight of the aircraft, while seventeen are on lease, from amongst others, Avation,FPG Amentum, Chorus Aviation Capital, and CMB Financial Leasing.

In 2019, it was certified to provide...

Nigerian virtual carrier Imo Air begins operations

Imo Air (Owerri) is a Nigerian virtual carrier that inaugurated scheduled commercial operations this past week.

Using MD-83 5N-SRI (msn 53020) chartered from Dana Air (9J, Lagos), Imo Air conducted its maiden flight - Lagos-Owerri, Imo State located in southeastern Nigeria.

Imo Air is owned by the Imo State government and aims to improve the region's connectivity with the rest of the country.

“We have five of these aircraft, and this is the first one that we have just acquired. We hope to go to a full blown carrier by 2018," the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, told Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper. "We have a partnership agreement with Dana, which spans about 10 years. We only gave them this aircraft for them to manage it for us because they are professional in the Nigerian aviation industry."

Aside from Imo Air, Owerri is connected to Lagos and Abuja by Air Peace (P4, Lagos), Arik Air (W3, Lagos), and Dana Air...

Nigeria's Cross River State to set-up Cally Air venture

Dana Air (9J, Lagos) is set to partner the Nigerian state government of Cross River in the development of new domestic carrier, dubbed Cally Air (Calabar).

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, state governor Ben Ayade told a media conference in the capital, Calabar, this past weekend that the airline is part of his government's bid to encourage tourism to the state, situated along Nigeria's border with Cameroon and its Atlantic Ocean front.

Cally Air will be managed by Dana Group under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

Using the state's Dash 8-200 5N-GRS (cn 547), Cally Air is planning to start flights in November serving Obudu, Lagos and Abuja from its Calabar hub. Until recently, the VIP-configured Bombardier Aerospace turboprop was operated by the now dormant Aero Contractors (N2, Lagos).