No airlines may fly from Turkey to the US due to a FAA order, US govt officials said Saturday. “All airline carriers, regardless of country of registry, are prohibited from flying into the US from Turkey either directly or via third country,” the US Embassy in Ankara said. The FAA has also banned any US registered aircraft from flying into Turkey. The FAA’s decision is likely a bigger problem for Turkish Airlines, the global behemoth that had made US flights a key part of its strategy. Turkish tries to capitalise on its unique location to sell Americans one-stop itineraries to hard-to-reach places, especially in Africa, the Middle East and India. Turkish flies nonstop to Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco, Washington Dulles and Chicago. <br/>
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Turkish Airlines resumed flights from Istanbul's international airport Saturday following a failed coup attempt while some foreign carriers canceled weekend flights. Forces loyal to Turkey's govt fought Saturday to crush the last remnants of a military coup attempt. Television images late Friday had shown tanks parked in front of the airport. A spokesman for Turkish Airlines said flights had now returned to their normal schedule from Europe's third largest hub, though delays were to be expected. Pegasus said its flights were also experiencing minor delays. The closure of Istanbul's Ataturk Airport late Friday had caused the diversion of 35 airplanes and canceled 32 flights, Turkish Airlines chairman Ilker Ayci said. <br/>
Fire was mentioned on the cockpit voice recorder of the EgyptAir Airbus A320 that crashed into the Mediterranean, but why or where the fire occurred is still not known, according to the latest information from the Egyptian accident investigation organisation. Initial evidence gleaned from the flight data recorder indicated the A320 experienced smoke in 2 separate locations on the aircraft before crashing into the sea. There were reports that messages sent by the A320's aircraft communications addressing and reporting system, which sends data on any faults or deviations from the norm to an airline’s home base, indicated the presence of smoke in both an avionics bay under the flight deck and a lavatory. The investigation committee said July 16: "Still, it is too early to determine the reason or the place where that fire occurred”. <br/>
South African Airways said Sunday it had put on hold a deal to restructure ZAR15b (US$1.04b) of debt after questions were raised about the awarding of the work. Local media reported this month that the board of SAA went against the advice of its own treasury by agreeing to pay boutique financier BnP Capital a ZAR256m success fee to advise the airline on debt restructuring and fund raising without putting the contract out to tender. A SAA spokesman said the contract was awarded without tender due to urgent loan repayments due at the end of June, but denied that the fee was set at ZAR256m. “We have given BnP Capital an opportunity to respond to matters we raised with them…Until we have received a response from them and have considered same, contracting between the parties will be stayed,” he said. <br/>
SWISS has launched its first commercial Bombardier CS100 scheduled flight from Zurich to Paris Charles de Gaulle. SWISS’s first CS100 was delivered June 29. The aircraft had been on display at the Farnborough Airshow this week. SWISS originally ordered 20 CS100s and 10 CS300s, plus 30 options. The carrier announced June 5 it will convert 5 of 20 CS100 orders into CS300s. SWISS CE Thomas Kluehr said recently that the airline will take delivery of 9 CS100s in 2016. It will take delivery of 1 aircraft per month in July, August and September. After that, deliveries will increase to 2 aircraft per month. In addition to Paris Charles de Gaulle, Manchester, Prague and Budapest will be the first SWISS destinations to receive CS100 service. They will be joined by Warsaw and Brussels at the end of August. <br/>