Airlines in Nigeria said on Monday flights were being disrupted after ground staff began an indefinite strike to demand higher pay. Air Peace, which has the biggest fleet in Nigeria, and smaller carrier Dana Air said the strike by the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) was delaying flights and hoped the issue would be quickly resolved. "The strike has affected all operations of all airlines being handled by the company (NAHCO)," Air Peace said in a statement. British Airways and Qatar Airways, among the foreign airlines frequently flying to Nigeria, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The National Union of Transport Employees and Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria issued a notice last week that its members would go on strike from Monday to press NAHCO for better pay.<br/>
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Gulf carrier Emirates plans to flying at pre-pandemic levels to Sydney and Melbourne and restart service to Christchurch via Sydney as travel demand soars. The Dubai-based airline will increase daily services to Melbourne from two to three from Dubai via Singapore in March, Emirates said on Monday. A third direct service to Sydney will start in May. The carrier will also restart service to Christchurch via Sydney on March 26, offering a new path across the trans-Tasman route. Emirates said it will be operating 63 weekly services to Australia by mid-year with the capacity to transport more than 55,000 passengers per week to and from its major cities.<br/>
Authorities in Nepal have handed to relatives the bodies of 60 of the 72 people killed in a plane crash last week, the airline said. Rescuers were still searching for two bodies at the site where a Yeti Airlines flight with 72 on board crashed on Jan. 15 at the resort town of Pokhara, 200 km west of the capital, Kathmandu. Among the 10 other bodies recovered, six have been identified and will be returned to relatives soon and four others still need to be identified, the airline said in a statement late Monday. The twin-engine ATR 72-500 aircraft plummeted into a gorge as it was approaching Pokhara International Airport in the Himalayan foothills. The crash site is about 1.6 kilometers from the runway at an elevation of about 820 meters (2,700 feet). While it’s still not clear what caused the crash, some aviation experts say video taken from the ground of the plane’s last moments indicated it went into a stall, although it’s unclear why. Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority has also said the airport’s instrument landing system will not be working until Feb. 26 — eight weeks after the airport began operations on Jan. 1. Aviation safety experts have said the absence reflects the poor air safety record in Nepal, where mountainous terrain and the resulting variable weather conditions make flying conditions difficult. The crash is Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when a Pakistan International Airlines plane plowed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu, killing all 167 people on board. There have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946, according to the Safety Matters Foundation. Authorities in Nepal have handed to relatives the bodies of 60 of the 72 people killed in a plane crash last week, the airline said. Rescuers were still searching for two bodies at the site where a Yeti Airlines flight with 72 on board crashed on Jan. 15 at the resort town of Pokhara, 200 kilometers west of the capital, Kathmandu.<br/>
Indian full-service carrier Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI), on Monday reported a quarterly profit, its first since starting operations in January 2015, as air travel soared. The privately held airline said its revenue crossed $1b and it clocked a net profit, excluding foreign currency loss and non-operating income, in the October-December quarter. However, the carrier did not disclose a profit number. Vistara has turned profitable at a time when the Tata group is looking to boost its aviation business by consolidating its three brands - Vistara, low-cost carrier Air Asia and former state-run airline, Air India. Tata is also set to place an order for some 495 new planes for Air India as it looks to revamp the airline and merge it with Vistara to create a bigger full-service carrier to take on Middle Eastern rivals like Emirates. Vistara said its international network grew by more than 180% in 2022 and its domestic network by more than 50% as it added new destinations and routes amid a rebound in travel post the COVID-19 pandemic.<br/>