Trivia 2019 (miscellaneous news)

[convair]

States have sovereignty over their territory and the airspace above it. They could impose such rules, probably for safety or environmental reasons

They certainly have that prerogative, but the russian example clearly shows that there are often other, less noble, reasons involved.

[Passenger]

Vietnam bans the import of leased aircraft of more than 10 years old from entering the country, effective 01 January 2020. Aircraft currently on lease cannot be more than 20 years old by lease expiry. Cargo aircraft shall not exceed 15 years old at time of import, and 25 years by lease end.

Can a similar regulation be implemented in Belgium? It would be a blow for one well-known airline!

Actually, it seems that the Chicago Convention forbits to close the airspace (inbound or passing through), unless for safety reasons:

"...Each contracting State may, for reasons of military necessity or public safety, restrict or prohibit uniformly the aircraft of other States from flying over certain areas of its territory, provided that no distinction in this respect is made between the aircraft of the State whose territory is involved, engaged in international scheduled airline services, and the aircraft of the other contracting States likewise engaged. Such prohibited areas shall be of reasonable extent and location so as not to interfere unnecessarily with air navigation. Descriptions of such prohibited areas in the territory of a contracting State, as well as any subsequent alterations therein, shall be communicated as soon as possible to the other contracting States and to the International Civil Aviation Organization...

"...Each contracting State reserves the right, for reasons of public order and safety, to regulate or prohibit the carriage in or above its territory of articles other than those enumerated..."

Source:
https://www.icao.int/publications/pages/doc7300.aspx

[luchtzak]

Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 suffers nose gear collapse during landing at Odessa, Ukraine

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/turk ... a-ukraine/

[Yuqu12]

Vietnam bans the import of leased aircraft of more than 10 years old from entering the country, effective 01 January 2020. Aircraft currently on lease cannot be more than 20 years old by lease expiry. Cargo aircraft shall not exceed 15 years old at time of import, and 25 years by lease end.

Can a similar regulation be implemented in Belgium? It would be a blow for one well-known airline!

Actually, it seems that the Chicago Convention forbits to close the airspace (inbound or passing through), unless for safety reasons:

"...Each contracting State may, for reasons of military necessity or public safety, restrict or prohibit uniformly the aircraft of other States from flying over certain areas of its territory, provided that no distinction in this respect is made between the aircraft of the State whose territory is involved, engaged in international scheduled airline services, and the aircraft of the other contracting States likewise engaged. Such prohibited areas shall be of reasonable extent and location so as not to interfere unnecessarily with air navigation. Descriptions of such prohibited areas in the territory of a contracting State, as well as any subsequent alterations therein, shall be communicated as soon as possible to the other contracting States and to the International Civil Aviation Organization...

"...Each contracting State reserves the right, for reasons of public order and safety, to regulate or prohibit the carriage in or above its territory of articles other than those enumerated..."

Source:
https://www.icao.int/publications/pages/doc7300.aspx

If Vietnam thinks that older planes aren't safe they could use the Chicago Convention to prohibit access, although the article you just quoted deals more with the possibilty for States to close certain parts for military purposes or in case there is a war/terroristic attack. But as said previously by convair, Russia uses its airspace for political reasons despite the fact that could be seen as contrary to the spirit of the Chicago Convention. Then there is the problem that ICAO cannot enforcd the Chicago Convention but that's another discussion.

[PttU]

To me it seems like two different things:
"Vietnam bans the import of leased aircraft of more than 10 years old from entering the country, effective 01 January 2020. Aircraft currently on lease cannot be more than 20 years old by lease expiry. Cargo aircraft shall not exceed 15 years old at time of import, and 25 years by lease end." <= I read this as they don't want on on Vietnamese registrations. Nothing with takeoff or landing rights, or overfly rights.

[rwandan-flyer]

Largest airlines in Africa (AFRAA members), in terms of passegners, in 2018. Some of them serve Brussels Airport. Average load factor is 71% (RwandAir is at 59%), which is far from the potential of African market

Regional = Africa

You can see that both South African Airways and Kenya Airways are loosing pax on some markets, due to the competition which has lead them to close some routes in Africa or oustide Africa and reduced their fleet

Air Algérie is now the 4th largest airlines in Africa, while RwandAir has reached the 1 millions mark

https://www.afraa.org/wp-content/upload ... t_2019.pdf

[jan_olieslagers]

Thanks for info, @Rwandair. Particularly surprising to me to see South African Airways only fifth - surely they lost a lot of traffic, then, recently? Weren't they a major carrier at one time, perhaps even Africa's biggest?

[rwandan-flyer]

Your welcome. I have just added stats, from 2017.

South African Airways is also struggling, due to the strong competition, from few African and European Airlines, but mainly from Gulf carriers.

Ex: Emirates serves Johannesburg 4 times a day (SAA has put its code share on these flights), Cape Town 2-3 times a day and Durban 2 times a day.

SAA closed several routes since 1-2 years and reduced capacity on others.

Closed: Beijing, Mumbai, Buenos Aires, Brazaville, Libreville, Cotonou, Douala, Abuja. The airline has also closed the London-Cape Town service, few years ago.
Less capacity: Entebbe (from A319 / A320 to ERJ 190), Luanda (only weekly service), Abidjan (from A330 to A320), London Heathrow now served 1 times a day, instead of 2 times.

[lumumba]

Luanda (SAA) has a daily flight but using a A320 in the past they used the A300 and the 747-400.

But it seems to me that South Africa has a very bad geographical position they can not be used has a hub from the EU or the US in that optic they lose a lot of passengers.

For RAM it's all the contrary they can be used has a hub and they play that card also.

[luchtzak]

Antonov An-124-100 suffers engine failure during take-off at Ostend-Bruges Airport, Belgium

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/anto ... t-belgium/

[globetrotter]

Ariana Afghan has moved operations to Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport, not sure when this happened or if they even served the new IST.

[Homo Aeroportus]

Air Senegal, HC/SZN, has taken delivery of their new A330-900 yesterday in Toulouse.

She is their second WB after the same type, 9H-SZN leased from Hi Fly, entered service in spring 2019.
Pictured above is their first one, s/n 1914.

Both are currently heading for DSS :
(the new bird first headed North after leaving TLS)

The new A339 will land at DSS in the late afternoon to be welcomed by the president of Senegal Macky Sall.
She (reg unknown to me) will start commercial service on 12DEC and will be used mainly on the new route DSS-MRS-BCN-DSS.
With two WBs Air Senegal will soon operate transatlantic service.


Airbus also confirms that Air Senegal has placed an order for eight (8) A220-300. This is probably in offset of the option they had for two more A339 that they cancelled.

The A220s will complement the current fleet of 2 A319 and a couple of ATRs.

H.A.

[TLspotting]

A private jet overshot the runway at LPL. All arrivals diverted until ~11:00Z.

[TLspotting]

[sn26567]

Six new British Airways routes from London Heathrow: Pristina, Podgorica, Perugia, Dalaman, Bodrum, Rhodes

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/inte ... um-rhodes/

[Passenger]

Problems at Eindhoven Airport: a lot of Dutch farmers, protesting against the government policy against agriculture, are enroute to protest at Eindhoven Airport.

Traffic to/from the airport is already jammed:

[globetrotter]

Tajik Air has resumed operations which were suspended in January and Mongolia's Eznis Airways have also returned to service this year after shutting down in 2014.

[luchtzak]

On 17 December, a Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 (D-ABYT) was taking off runway 9 at Miami Airport, United States destination Frankfurt, Germany. Meanwhile, an Iberia Airbus A330 (EC-LXK) from Madrid, Spain was approaching the same runway for landing. 

Only a few seconds after the Boeing 747 took off, the Airbus A330 landed. A - much dramatized - video of the scene appeared on social media. Too close for comfort or not ?
.
https://www.aviation24.be/airports/miam ... oeing-747/

[Poiu]

Only a few seconds after the Boeing 747 took off, the Airbus A330 landed. A - much dramatized - video of the scene appeared on social media. Too close for comfort or not ?

At big airports land after is a common clearance, meaning an aircraft can land even with the previous traffic still on the runway, providing sufficient stopping distance is available.
A balked landing, in this case, would have created a problem as the landing Iberia would have caught up the departing Lufthansa, so landing was definitely the safest option.
A real drama queen the spotter, luckily he’s not an Iberia pilot!

[jan_olieslagers]

I should think that wake turbulence is the main concern, especially from a 747?
But I also like to think that the pilots know what they are doing.

Accidentally, I saw something similar happen at Antwerp airport yesterday: a PA28 started its take-off roll while a DA-42 was on short final. I estimate both planes were, at one moment, less than 50 feet high, one going up, the other going down, and both well within the aerodrome perimeter. Perhaps they were training for a similar situation?