The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has reportedly issued a fine to Thai based airline, Orient Thai Airlines. The operator reportedly failed to acquire the appropriate permits to perform flights to Nanning and Chengdu in China. As a result, the CAAC issued the airline with a USD4,500 fine. This recent penalisation comes after the CAAC issued an additional fine to Orient Thai last month, after a nose wheel separated from an aircraft during a landing at Nanning Wuxu International Airport. In addition to this financial penalty, the airline was also restricted from introducing new routes to Chinese destinations for a period of six months.

On 22nd June 2016, ECAir Equatorial Congo Airlines (Republic of the Congo) suspended its domestic operations due to the unserviceability of two Boeing 737 aircraft. One of the aircraft utilised on the Brazzaville-Point Noire route was reportedly undergoing maintenance in Brussels, with the remaining aircraft damaged as a result of a hangar fire in Prague. ECAir has stated that it will continue to sell tickets and honour existing bookings; however, flights will be operated by fellow Congo-based airline, Trans Air Congo and its fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft.

On May 1st, South African regional carrier SA Express was temporarily grounded by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) due to a number of safety and non-compliance concerns. Following a series of inspections and audits carried out by the SACAA, SA Express’ safety monitoring system was reportedly found to be inadequate. This prompted the subsequent suspension of the airline’s Air Operators Certificate (AOC). Despite this, the AOC was reinstated on the 3rd of May after the SACCA acknowledged that the airline had implemented a satisfactory action plan to rectify the concerns raised.