South African Airways will stop eight international routes from Johannesburg, as the airline undergoes a business restructuring aimed at easing its financial woes. From February 29, it will no longer serve Abidjan via Accra (Ghana), Entebbe (Uganda), Guangzhou (China), Hong Kong, Luanda (Angola), Munich (Germany), Ndola (Zambia), and Sao Paulo (Brazil). On its domestic route network, it will continue to serve Cape Town from Johannesburg on a reduced basis, but will end all other destinations, including Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth. Domestic routes operated by its low-cost subsidiary Mango will not be affected. Customers booked on cancelled flights will receive a full refund, or be re-accommodated on services operated by Mango. International services between Johannesburg and Frankfurt, London Heathrow, New York, Perth and Washington via Accra will be retained. Regional services from Johannesburg to Blantyre, Dar es Salaam, Harare, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lilongwe, Lusaka, Maputo, Mauritius, Nairobi, Victoria Falls, Livingston and Windhoek will also continue. The business rescue practitioners (BRPs) leading the restructure said that while a full plan would be published in late February, some measures needed to be implemented more quickly due to an “urgent” need to conserve cash. As well as route network changes this will include the deployment of more fuel-efficient aircraft, optimisation of organisational structures and renegotiation of contracts with suppliers. The BRPs said that “rationalisation programmes are under consideration for SAA’s subsidiaries, as well as the sale of selected assets,” in order to improve liquidity. In a bid to reassure potential passengers, they added that further route changes are not expected. Employee numbers will be reduced, but the number of job cuts has not been announced. South African Airways was saved from the brink of collapse in late January, when it was given 3.5 billion rand (£185 million) in emergency funding from the government-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa. The airline was placed in a form of bankruptcy protection in December, but an expected 2 billion Rand (£104 million) government loan was postponed, with South Africa’s finance minister saying the bailout could not increase the country’s budget deficit. The state-owned airline has not made a profit since 2011, and bailouts over the last three years have totalled more than 20 billion rand (£1 billion). The airline’s BRPs say they are now planning to “develop a sustainable, competitive and efficient airline”.

Source: Business Traveller

Weather data from Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport indicates rain and a strong tailwind component at the time when a landing Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800 overran the runway and broke up. Emergency services are attending the scene of the accident. There are no immediate suggestions of fatalities. The twinjet – which the carrier has identified as TC-IZK – had been arriving from Izmir at around 18:15, as flight PC2193. It overran the end of runway 06 and travelled down an embankment, its fuselage fracturing, and came to rest with its cockpit section having separated and rolled upside-down. NOTAM data for the airport states that “due to aircraft crash” the single runway 06/24 – which is 3,000m long – is closed. Pegasus Airlines has yet to confirm further details about the situation and the occupants of the jet. Meteorological data from Sabiha Gokcen at the time of the accident shows rain showers and cumulonimbus cloud in the vicinity. But it also points to winds from 290k at 22kt – and gusting to 37kt – which would result in a tailwind component of 14-24kt as well as a crosswind element for runway 06. The accident is the second serious event involving a Pegasus aircraft in less than a month. One of the carrier’s 737-800s suffered an excursion at Sabiha Gokcen on 7 January, also during strong winds and rain. Cirium fleets data lists TC-IZK as a 2009 airframe originally delivered to Air Berlin.

Source: Cirium

Airbus A350 operators have been ordered to define a “liquid prohibited” zone in the cockpit, after two incidents in which beverage spillages on the centre pedestal led to in-flight shutdown of a Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine. FlightGlobal exclusively revealed last month that a liquid spill had preceded a Delta Air Lines A350 shutdown and diversion on 21 January, and that a spill on an Asian carrier’s A350 was suspected to have resulted in a similar shutdown and diversion last November. In an emergency directive the European Union Aviation Safety Agency has warned that inadvertent spillage on the engine-start panel or electronic centralised aircraft monitor panel – both located on the pedestal – could potentially result in a dual engine shutdown. Preliminary technical investigation, it says, indicates “abnormal operation” of components in the panels resulting from the spillages. Uncommanded shutdown followed “some time” after the spillage and subsequent engine relight attempts were not successful. Airbus has published a temporary revision to the aircraft’s flight manual, dated 4 February, defining a “liquid prohibited zone” for the cockpit and the procedures to be followed in case of a pedestal spillage. It has also published an operator communication reminding airlines about standard practices for handling liquids in the cockpit. EASA has ordered A350-900 and -1000 operators to include the revision in the flight manual, adding that the directive is an interim action and further instruction could follow.

Source: Cirium