Ebola carrying passenger arrives on Nigerian flight
July 31, 2014
Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for Nigeria' s finance ministry arrived in Nigeria from Liberia, and was found to be infected with the Ebola virus. Nigerian authorities have quarantined Sawyer in Lagos, and begun trying to identify everyone he has been in contact with during his journey, which included changing flights in Ghana. West Africa is currently battling the worst ever outbreak of Ebola, which as killed more than 1000 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since February. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and is currently bracing itself for a possible outbreak of the disease, after a Liberian man died last week. Large airports will often have quarantine facilities, where travellers who have a contagious disease can be confined. Airline workers are trained to spot symptoms and most international airports have quarantine officials. Updates regarding travel exposure to disease is available from the World Health Organisation: http: //www.who. int/ith
Tigerair Mandala to suspend operations
June 25, 2014
ndonesian-based airline Tigerair Mandala has announced that they will suspend operations on July 1st 2014. The airline has had poor financial performance for several years and has recently undertaken significant capacity reduction. The airline’s key stake holders, which include the Tiger Airways Holdings Group and the Saratoga Group, recently entered talks with potential investors regarding a share acquisition or purchase of the small airline division. With the failure of these talks it was concluded that the operations, currently only consisting of five aircraft, would be suspended. The aircraft will be returned to their lessors and future bookings will be either refunded or booked via an alternative Tigerair airline division.
ICAO declares the Congolese navigation aids as un-serviceable
June 25, 2014
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has recently completed an audit of the aviation infrastructure utilised within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The audit identified that a significant number of the country’s navigational aids did not meet the required international standards. As a consequence, the navigational aids have been categorised as un-serviceable, indicating that the capability of aircraft to safely navigate throughout the DRC using these navigation aids has been significantly compromised. The civil aviation regulatory authority of the DRC, the Régie des Voies Aériennes (RAV) responded to the audit results by requesting additional time for the regulator to undertake the required re-calibration process of the nav-aids. By late June 2014, no amended update to the non-compliant nav-aid declaration had been formalised.