Closure of Niger airspace following coup d'état.

[crew1990]

Niger airspace being claused at the moment, this is causing traffic trouble for flights normally passing over Niger. As Libyan airspace is closed as well, lot of flight, Brussels Airlines one amongs them need to use much longer route to fly to their destination leading to interesting flight path on flightradar24. For example right now you can see Brussels Airlines flight above canaris island to reach Kinshasa, around 11h flight time!

[crew1990]

The Kigali one also have a special routing. Since the Soudan air space is closed as well for a couple of month, SN used to fly through central Africa and the above Niger. But as the Lybian, Niger and Soudan airspace are closed, the KGL flight go over Saudi Arabia (Jeddha) then fly above the Red sea, and will enter Africa through Djibouti...

[sn26567]

Africa is really a challenging continent for airlines. You need the Brussels Airlines experience (inherited from Sabena) to find your way in all circumstances.

[rwandan-flyer]

The Kigali one also have a special routing. Since the Soudan air space is closed as well for a couple of month, SN used to fly through central Africa and the above Niger. But as the Lybian, Niger and Soudan airspace are closed, the KGL flight go over Saudi Arabia (Jeddha) then fly above the Red sea, and will enter Africa through Djibouti...

The Lybian Airspace is not closed. Many airlines avoid the airspace due to the instability in Lybia

But all Egytpair flights from Cairo to West Africa use the Lybian Airspace. Marathon Airlines (Greece) serve Lybia, while ITA Airways could resume flights this year (probably in August 2023) https://thearabweekly.com/italy-resumes ... rt-dbeibah

[Homo Aeroportus]

I contacted the DirOps at DRRN yesterday and he said they are all OK but Airport and Airspace will remain closed until, presumably, next Saturday 05AUG.

Challenging times indeed in many parts of the AFI region.
See 3 of the SN flights yesterday ; another meaning of Great Circle navigation?

Courtesy FR24

Map from the Ops Group :
Libya and Sudan : No Go. South Sudan : no nav service above FL245.

EASA Conflict Zone Information Bulletin – Libya
… there is a HIGH risk of both intentional and unintentional attacks to civil aviation at all altitudes. Air navigation services in the country could be degraded or unavailable.

Canada : … are recommended not to enter FIR Tripoli FIR (HLLL)
Germany : … are recommended not to enter FIR TRIPOLI (HLLL).
France : … are requested not to penetrate into the airspace of Libya (HLLL FIR (TRIPOLI)).
UK : … are prohibited to enter FIR TRIPOLI (HLLL) / the territory and airspace of the State of Libya

But this week Italy resumes flights to Libya, although limited to the shores at HLLM / Mitiga (aka Okba AFB, Wheelus … )

And all the above is at high altitude. People suffer on the ground. What a world !

H.A.

[Lux_avi]

Africa is really a challenging continent for airlines. You need the Brussels Airlines experience (inherited from Sabena) to find your way in all circumstances.

While not questioning the expertise of Brussels Airlines on this continent, what makes you think other airlines would not be capable of dealing with those issues to find their way as well?

Not sure Turkish, Emirates, Qatar, British Airways, Royal Air Maroc among other big players in Africa would agree with your statement.

[crew1990]

As a mini update. There will be no modification to the flight scheduled. As Homo Aeroportus said, the closure will be untill 5 august. A NOTAC is indeed running untill then,(at least). SN will then use a route flying above Mali for flight to Douala, Yaounde, Luanda, Kinshasa. The flight time will then be slightly longer but reasonably. While the one to Entebbe, Kigali, Bujumbura will use the same path as yesterday flying east in the Saudi Arabia airspace and then flying through Djibouti to enter African continent. This will leed to a longer fly time, making that an augmented crew will be assign to cope with the FT/DT regulation. From a passenger perspective, there will be barely no difference from their perspective.

[crew1990]

Following a new NOTAM, Niger airspace is open again since yesterday evening, earlier than foreseen.

[Homo Aeroportus]

Following a new NOTAM, Niger airspace is open again since yesterday evening, earlier than foreseen.

No more info from the airport but indeed airspace open.

H.A.

[Homo Aeroportus]

A first A332 MRTT Phénix of the French Air and Space Force has landed at DRRN/NIM around 12:00 UTC.
Passengers are in the terminal and the flight is to leave around 15:00 UTC heading back to France. A second A332 is due to arrive later this evening for a departure around midnight but not yet confirmed.
2-3 similar FASF flights are rumored for the coming days. Other nations may follow suit with repatriation flights, probably from NIM or possibly from Agadez, BA201.

H.A.

[sn26567]

A first A332 MRTT Phénix of the French Air and Space Force has landed at DRRN/NIM around 12:00 UTC.
Passengers are in the terminal and the flight is to leave around 15:00 UTC heading back to France. A second A332 is due to arrive later this evening for a departure around midnight but not yet confirmed.
2-3 similar FASF flights are rumored for the coming days. Other nations may follow suit with repatriation flights, probably from NIM or possibly from Agadez, BA201.

H.A.

Out of the 110 Belgians known to be in Niger, 15 are being evacuated on the French Government planes.

[rwandan-flyer]

The airspace is once again closed since this late evening.


AFP News Agency
@AFP
#BREAKING Niger's rulers close its air space, citing 'threat of intervention'

11:27 PM · Aug 6, 2023 6,385 Views

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1688300870478290944

The Air Belgium flight from BRU to JNB is changing its heading. It will be interesting to see the new flight plans, because this is the busiest period of the day in term of flights between Europe and Africa. Many flights are already in the sky

https://www.flightradar24.com/ABB2305/317821a0



And no suprise, these flights are among the most tracked on Flight Radar 24

[rwandan-flyer]

Some AF flights are diverting to Abidjan (JNB CDG and NBO CDG). AF flight LBV CDG back to Libreville few minutes after its take off

BA56 JNB LHR, NBO LHR and MRU LGW seems to be diverted to where ?

Virgin 450 JNB LHR has just landed at Lagos : https://www.flightradar24.com/VIR450/3177fa1b

KLM 536 Kigali Entebbe Amsterdam seems to go the east

[crew1990]

SN EBB-BRU just performed a U-turn, I guess going back to EBB.

[rwandan-flyer]

SN EBB-BRU just performed a U-turn, I guess going back to EBB.

Yes.

Also the Air Belgium A330 leased to Air Madagascar made a U turn over DR Congo and back to Madagascar. https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flig ... 0#31788ac1

RwandAir flight from London to Kigali made a stop at Accra (it's a destination served by RwandAir). It's now en route to Kigali. The flight from Kigali to London seems to be still at Kigali. Acc to FR24, it has started its push back, but didn't move since https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airc ... n#31792318

KL535 Kigali Entebbe Amsterdam diverted to Athens. https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flig ... 5#3178ec69

JNB FRA flight operated by Lufthansa diverted to Lagos. https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/lh573

[luchtzak]

My story of the news: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/mili ... r-traffic/

Found a few more flights, thanks to the forums members for their contributions:

• Brussels Airlines flight SN455, an Airbus A330 (registered OO-SFF) returned to Entebbe, Uganda
• Air Belgium flight MD50, operating between Antananarivo, Madagascar and Paris CDG, France also returned to Madagascar
• Brussels Airlines flight SN383 from Yaounde, Cameroon to Brussels, Belgium performed an extra stop in Barcelona, Spain, as well as a KLM Boeing 777 that that operated KL592 from Johannesburg, South Africa and Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Lufthansa flight LH573 from Johannesburg to Frankfurt, Germany diverted to Lagos, Nigeria before heading to Frankfurt and experiencing a delay of seven hours.

[Passenger]

My story of the news: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/mili ... r-traffic/

Found a few more flights, thanks to the forums members for their contributions:

• Brussels Airlines flight SN455, an Airbus A330 (registered OO-SFF) returned to Entebbe, Uganda
• Air Belgium flight MD50, operating between Antananarivo, Madagascar and Paris CDG, France also returned to Madagascar
• Brussels Airlines flight SN383 from Yaounde, Cameroon to Brussels, Belgium performed an extra stop in Barcelona, Spain, as well as a KLM Boeing 777 that that operated KL592 from Johannesburg, South Africa and Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Lufthansa flight LH573 from Johannesburg to Frankfurt, Germany diverted to Lagos, Nigeria before heading to Frankfurt and experiencing a delay of seven hours.

A Martinair Cargo 747-400F (PH-MPS) from Amsterdam to Johannesburg returned to Amsterdam, halfway the Mediterrean Sea. KLM states that a deviation for refueling wasn't possible.

[Darjeeling]

Africa is really a challenging continent for airlines. You need the Brussels Airlines experience (inherited from Sabena) to find your way in all circumstances.

With all due respect, André, I almost choked with laughter reading these statements . It's been a long time since SN has been the "King Of Africa" they once were. Perhaps that was the case in the early 2000s or late 90s, but a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. Other pilots know how to avoid a storm in Rwanda, backtrack the runway in Kinshasa, give a bakshish to get the front cargo elevator before the neighbor, and so on. AF, ET, KL, EK, QR, TK... and many others have now taken the lead after all these years during which SN remained stagnant, striving to acquire a fifth or sixth third-hand A330. And this comes with all my respect for SN personnel, but the game is over now, and SN is no longer the player they used to be, they are just secondary.

[crew1990]

In my opinion, you are right to say SN is not the only big player it used to be, I fully agree. But still SN remain a big player in Africa and to me still a leader in there at the same level than AF TK and the M3. Not to forget that beside the SN flight, Brussels Airlines is also the center of competence for the entire Lufthansa group.

[rwandan-flyer]

Jeune Afrique says that Air France suspends its flights to Bamako and Ougadougou till 11 August 2023.

Bamako and Ouagadougou destinations suspended

On August 7, Air France announced that it had suspended its flights to Niamey until further notice, while connections to Bamako (Mali) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) are interrupted until August 11 inclusive.

https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1471403/ec ... 1691424926