Leasing company Awas (Ireland) is expected to announce a deal to buy up to 100 Airbus jets worth $6,9-billion, the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> reported on Wednesday. The news came after aerospace group Boeing said it delivered 441 commercial airplanes in 2007 as part of a tight race with Europe’s Airbus.
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/ 28 December 2007
Six French aid workers sentenced to hard labour in Chad for trying to kidnap 103 children flew out of the African nation on Friday bound for France where they are due to serve their sentences in jail. France invoked a 1976 judicial cooperation treaty with its former colony to obtain the quick transfer home of the six.
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/ 7 December 2007
The South African Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) outgoing chief executive, Zakes Myeza, has no plans following his resignation this week. Myeza said he joined an ”almost dysfunctional” CAA 20 months ago, when it had functioned without a permanent chief executive for almost three years.
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/ 5 December 2007
Another local flight, this time involving an aircraft belonging to South African Express, was delayed on Tuesday in George, it was disclosed on Wednesday. This followed the delay of a South African Airways flight in East London — also on Tuesday. The South African Express flight was delayed for more than 12 hours.
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/ 4 December 2007
The South African Civil Aviation Authority and Nationwide Airlines have agreed to a media blackout regarding the grounding of the carrier. They said they would no longer make independent statements to the press, but would speak jointly on the process, it was announced on Tuesday.
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/ 2 December 2007
It was unlikely that grounded airline Nationwide would be given permission for take-off to London on Sunday night, said the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Inspectors had spent most of the day examining the Boeing 767 the airline intended using on the flight, said CAA aircraft safety executive manager Obert Chakarisa.
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/ 30 November 2007
Nationwide Airlines said on Friday that all its domestic and international flights had been grounded by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority, but did not know how long the ban would last. Nationwide’s spokesperson Rodger Whittle said he did not anticipate that grounding would be a ”long situation”.
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/ 23 November 2007
A flight was cancelled and another turned back when planes experienced technical difficulties on Friday. A 7.30am kulula.com flight — heading from Johannesburg to George — was cancelled after a fault with the aircraft’s public-announcement system was found, said Comair spokesperson Glenda Zvenyika.
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/ 13 November 2007
Low-cost airline kulula.com said on Tuesday it would know ”in time” what caused the oil-pressure warning which led to a flight to Cape Town turning back to Johannesburg. ”We are quite encouraged by the level of focus on safety issues in terms of domestic flights. It’s a good thing,” said Gidon Novick, joint CEO of Comair.
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/ 13 November 2007
A kulula.com passenger aircraft turned back to Johannesburg soon after taking off for Cape Town on Monday because of low oil pressure in an engine, Comair said. A spokesperson said flight MN103, scheduled to depart just after noon, turned back to Johannesburg within 40 minutes after the captain received a ”technical alert”.
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/ 12 November 2007
Boeing 737-200s belonging to Comair, kulula.com and South African Airways Cargo have been found safe after engine-mount inspections, South African Airways Technical said on Monday. The Civil Aviation Authority had ordered all Boeing 737-200s inspected after the engine of a Nationwide aircraft fell off during a flight.
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/ 12 November 2007
Inspections on Boeing 737-200s as ordered by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) were being carried out on Monday. CAA spokesperson Phindiwe Gwebu said a number of airlines had submitted reports. The inspections were ordered by the authority after a Nationwide carrier lost an engine during take-off and had to make an emergency landing at Cape Town International Airport last week.
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/ 12 November 2007
Airbus named on Monday Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal as the first private buyer of an A380 superjumbo, the world’s largest passenger airliner. The prospective buyer’s identity had been kept secret for months but was unveiled to coincide with the Dubai air show.
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/ 10 November 2007
Nationwide airline’s Boeing 737-200s were temporarily grounded on Saturday, pending engine inspections, said the Civil Aviation Authority. This action comes after a Nationwide Boeing 737 carrying 106 passengers had to make an emergency landing in Cape Town on Wednesday after an engine fell off during take-off.
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/ 8 November 2007
South African Airways (SAA) posted a net profit before tax and restructuring charges of R136-million for the six months ended September 2007, after a period of massive losses, acting chief financial officer Clive Else said on Thursday. Revenue rose to R11-billion from R9,6-billion, reflecting a 1,2% profit margin.
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/ 8 November 2007
The engine that dropped off Nationwide flight CE723 had sucked in ”an object” as the plane was taking off, the airline said on Thursday. It was commenting on the drama on Wednesday in which a Johannesburg-bound Boeing 737 lost one of its two engines during take-off from Cape Town airport, yet managed to land safely half-an-hour later.
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/ 25 October 2007
The days of cursing the passenger in front of you could be over. On the world’s biggest airliner, the Airbus A380, it is the little things that will make travel more comfortable for ordinary flyers, said Tom Ballantyne, senior correspondent for the industry publication <i>Orient Aviation</i>.
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/ 22 October 2007
Passengers elated over their upcoming flight on the Airbus A380, the biggest commercial jet in the world, are taking notes on their preparations and planning celebrations even before take-off. The Singapore Airlines flight on October 25 bound for Sydney is set to carry 471 passengers who bid for seats in an online charity auction.
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/ 21 October 2007
Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi, a 24-year-old physics undergraduate in northern Nigeria, takes old cars and motorbikes to pieces in the back yard at home and builds his own helicopters from the parts. ”It took me eight months to build this one,” he said, sweat pouring from his forehead.
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/ 15 October 2007
Airbus on Monday delivered the first of its A380s, the world’s biggest passenger jet, to Singapore Airlines, 18 months behind schedule but with both sides hailing the major advance in air travel. The 73m-long superjumbo was handed over in a ceremony at the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse in southern France.
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/ 11 October 2007
Boeing ran into turbulence on its highly touted 787 Dreamliner programme, announcing a six-month delay for the new jet seen as the future profit driver for the United States aviation giant. Boeing said the first deliveries will not come until December 2008.
The judge in the Boeremag treason trial on Tuesday urged one of the accused and his legal representative to come to some sort of arrangement after the advocate withdrew from the trial, causing yet a further delay. Advocate Barry van der Merwe, who represented alleged former Boeremag military commander Tom Vorster, withdrew without giving any reasons.
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/ 18 September 2007
China, the world’s fastest-growing aviation market, will need 3 400 new airplanes worth about $340-billion over the next 20 years, United States aircraft maker Boeing said on Tuesday. The forecast marks a dramatic increase from an earlier prediction by Boeing of 2 900 aircraft in the period from 2005 to 2025.
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/ 14 September 2007
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin park their jet just a stone’s throw from their offices, paying $1,3-million a year for rights at a federally maintained airfield, the <i>New York Times</i> reported Thursday. Why put up with bothersome local traffic when you can shell out a princely sum for take-off and landing rights just a few minutes from your office?
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/ 5 September 2007
Boeing’s new 787 jetliner will not begin flight testing until mid-November or mid-December, months later than originally planned, because it is taking longer than anticipated to get the first plane ready, the head of the company’s commercial airplanes unit said on Wednesday.
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/ 5 September 2007
South African Airways (SAA) is finalising the standardisation of working conditions with trade unions in its ”deep and fundamental” restructuring process, chief executive Khaya Ngqula said on Wednesday. He also said the process of grounding SAA’s costly Boeing 747-400 fleet by November is on track.
Four artists exhibiting in Cape Town are unmaking the world as we know it, writes Carl Collison