The Canadian government has granted Canada Jetlines, the country’s newest low-cost carrier, an air operating certificate (AOC), removing the final barrier to the airline’s long-awaited launch. The Vancouver-based carrier said on 18 August that securing the certificate “confirms that Canada Jetlines has all required professional capabilities and adheres to all safety regulations needed for aircraft operations”. “The entire team at Canada Jetlines is thrilled to obtain our AOC after meeting all necessary operation standards and passing all inspections,” says CE Eddy Doyle. “We excitedly look forward to our launch date, meeting the increased demand for convenient, leisure travel in Canada and beyond, and to provide more options to explore the world.” Earlier this month, the start-up leisure carrier said it would not begin operations as planned on 15 August. Instead, Jetlines “tentatively rescheduled” its first passenger revenue flights to 29 August. On that day, the carrier plans to operate flights between Toronto and both Winnipeg (Manitoba) and Moncton (New Brunswick), its website shows. Canada Jetlines says it “will be releasing new destinations and updated scheduling shortly”. Jetlines has been many years in the making. The airline went through numerous top management changes and several rounds of fundraising since coming onto the scene in 2015. It stands to be the second of two start-up Canadian discount airlines to launch this year. The other, Calgary-based Lynx Air, began revenue flights in April using new Boeing 737 Max 8s. Lynx and Jetlines join WestJet subsidiary Swoop and Flair Airlines – both of which operate Boeing 737s – in that country’s low-cost segment. Jetlines has said it plans initially to fly domestic Canada routes before expanding to warm-weather destinations, like those in Florida, and Cancun, Las Vegas and Cuba. In doing so, it will follow other Canadian leisure carriers, which make much of their business catering to sun-hungry, winter-weary Canadians. Jetlines aims to expand its fleet to 15 aircraft by 2025.<br/>
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A holiday jet told to perform a go-around of Aberdeen Airport descended for almost a minute before the air crew noticed, a report has said. The Boeing 737 operated by Tui was flying into Aberdeen from Majorca in September last year when air traffic controllers asked for a landing delay. It initially climbed, then descended for 57 seconds before action was taken. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the crew became overloaded by their high workload. The aircraft, with 67 passengers and six crew on board, was below 1,600ft before climbing again. It landed safely with no further incident. The AAIB report said it was a "serious" incident. It said the air crew's lack of flying hours during the pandemic was one of a combination of factors that led to them not noticing the descent. The report said: "The aircraft descended for a total of 57 seconds before the climb was re-established. It is likely that the crew allowed the aircraft to descend unnoticed having become overloaded by the high workload during the go-around."<br/>
The Management of PassionAir has announced it will commence domestic flight operations at the Sunyani Airport from Friday, September 9 this year to airlift passengers from Sunyani to Accra four times in a week. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo inaugurated the first phase of the rehabilitation and expansion of the airport on Wednesday, August 3 this year. In the interim, Samuel Razak Tachie, the Sales and Marketing Manager, PassionAir, explained the airline would fly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the morning, as well as Sundays in the afternoon, with introductory fare of GhC600 per flight. Speaking at a stakeholders meeting in Sunyani, attended by traditional leaders, Heads of Departments, Agencies, business entrepreneurs and corporate bodies, Tachie however, added “if patronage and demand are good it would be a surprise that we fly daily from Sunyani to Accra”. He emphasised though PasssionAir was a solely Ghanaian-owned company, safety of passengers remained a hallmark, saying “our five aircrafts are Canadian-made that meet international aviation standard. In fact, safety is important, so please be rest assured that our airlines are safe”.<br/>
Emirates Airlines plans to suspend all flights to and from Nigeria because of an inability to repatriate funds out of the country, the carrier said on Thursday. The Dubai-based airline is suspending services from September 1 after securing no progress in its efforts to move funds, reported to be $85m, out of the west African country. “Emirates has tried every avenue to address our ongoing challenges in repatriating funds from Nigeria and have made considerable efforts to initiate dialogue with the relevant authorities for their urgent intervention to help find a viable solution,” Emirates said. “There has been no progress.” The Gulf carrier said it would re-evaluate its decision if there were positive developments in the coming days. Nigeria’s central bank has implemented tight foreign currency controls as it seeks to ease pressure on its dwindling reserves. 90% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings come from oil exports, but production has dipped below its daily Opec quota because of theft, pipeline vandalism and a lack of infrastructure, even as oil prices rise following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Nigeria’s central bank operates multiple exchange rate windows, including an importer and exporter window, where large institutions access dollars for their business. Ikenga Kalu, a foreign exchange trader at Aza Finance, a forex facilitating company in frontier markets, said Emirates’ decision was because of the central bank’s failure to meet the demand for dollars by many institutions operating in Nigeria. Emirates’ suspension of its activities was not “the best signal” to foreign companies who invest their dollars in Nigeria, he said. Emirates is not the only carrier with trapped revenues. In June, the IATA said foreign airlines operating in Nigeria had $450m in revenues they could not repatriate out of the country. A spokesperson for Nigeria’s aviation minister Hadi Sirika said Emirates’ suspension was “concerning”.<br/>
Gulf Air will serve its third airport in the United Arab Emirates from 3 October, when it commences flights to Ras Al Khaimah International airport. The carrier says it hopes to operate year-round service to Ras Al Khaimah, facilitating connections to regional and international destinations through its Bahrain hub, with its initial operations being twice-weekly. The 18 August announcement follows news days earlier that Indian budget carrier IndiGo will also launch flights to the emirate, in late September, with daily service from Mumbai. Like Gulf Air, IndiGo already serves Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but it also operates to Sharjah. In its announcement of the route, Gulf Air notes that Ras Al Khaimah’s tourism development authority is aiming to open up the emirate to a larger number of international visitors. In October 2019, Indian operator SpiceJet had announced Ras Al Khaimah as its first overseas hub, commencing operations there in November 2020, but it dropped services from the airport in April this year. Today, Cirium schedules data shows only Air Arabia – which counts the airport as one of its bases – Air India Express and Pakistan International Airlines serving Ras Al Khaimah across a total of 179 flights in August 2022, with the biggest destinations by capacity being Cairo, Peshawar and Lahore.<br/>