Nigerian pilot, Odujinrin set for maiden African solo flight

The much-awaited first African solo flight was expected to take off yesterday from Washington DC in the United States.The flight, being manned by Nigerian pilot, Captain Ademilola Odujinrin, will see a specially configured single Cirrus aircraft fly around the world, with stop overs in selected cities. Odujinrin will be the 114th pilot to have embarked on such mission globally.

Bi-Courtney prepares for airport concessioning, gets new CEO

 

Captain Jari Williams

Operator of Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2) terminal in Lagos, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) has appointed a new Chief Executive Officer, in preparation for the Federal Government’s proposed concessioning of some airports in the country.

AMCON enforces take over of AfriJet Airlines

Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), at the weekend, took possession of Afrijet Airlines Limited and its other related assets in Lagos over unpaid N10 billion debt.

The action was in line with a court order by Justice Chuka Austine Obiozor of The Federal High Court Lagos Division, that granted an interim injunction against Afrijet Airlines Limited, owned by Chief Vitalis Ibe, over the N10b debt.

Returnees appeal to FG to assist stranded Nigerians in Libya

Some Nigerian returnees from Libya on Thursday appealed to the Federal Government to assist in bringing back home many Nigerians who are stranded in the country.

They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Lagos shortly after their arrival that Nigerians were inhumanly treated in Libya.

NAN reports that the returnees were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with the Swiss Government and the Nigerian Embassy in Libya.

Mr Tunde Ayinde, an architect, said that he went to Libya in search of greener pasture but unfortunately, he fell sick and was hospitalised.

Ayinde said when he could not pay for his hospital bill; he was thrown out of the hospital.

“I was arrested by their security agents and remanded in prison for three months just because I asked one of the officers to assist me by showing me the Nigerian embassy in Tripoli when I could not afford to pay my bill.

KLM unveils orange aircraft

KLM has unveiled an orange B777-300ER aircraft, which will be used to promote the Netherlands at events including this year’s Olympic Games.

The aircraft features the front part of the fuselage painted in orange, before fading into KLM’s normal blue colour further down the aircraft. The design has also incorporated the colours of the Dutch flag in the transition between orange and blue.

I Was Forced To Pay #40 Million Naira For My Release Rufus Ojuawo Reveals

Detained ‎former Air Officer in charge of Tactical Air Command, Makurdi, Air Vice Marshal [AVM] Rufus Ojuawo, has told a Federal High Court in Abuja that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) forced him to pay N40 million as a condition for his release.

He is currently in confinement at House 27, Niger Barracks, Asokoro, Abuja, under the directive of the EFCC.

He further alleged that contrary to the position of the anti-graft agency, he did not voluntarily surrender his Range Rover (SUV) car to the commission but that it was seized from him by force.

SOURCE:- SMASH9JA

Emirates increases Dubai-Melbourne non-stop service

Emirates is to add a second daily non-stop service between Dubai and Melbourne later this year.

One of the carrier’s two daily flights to Melbourne currently stops en-route in Kuala Lumpur, but will become a non-stop service from October 30.

EK408 will depart Dubai at 0300, arriving into Melbourne at 2320, with the return leg EK409 departing the Australian city at 0600 and landing in Dubai at 1305.

Emirates say the new non-stop schedule will save passengers around two and a half hours in travel time on the route.

Business travel trends: smart luggage

Last year, 23 million suitcases were mishandled or lost by airlines and airports. Here we review smart luggage and tracking devices designed to solve the problem.

ANTLER AIRSTREAM 2

British luggage company Antler will soon unveil its Airstream 2 case, which comes with a unique ID label. Owners register their case on okoban.com, along with their contact information, so if the bag goes missing, whoever finds it can send an alert to them through the website with its whereabouts. 

USEFUL? Okoban says: “Your chances of being reunited with lost property are significantly improved” when using its system. It’s hard to tell if it would be any more effective than the airline baggage handling operations, which have their own procedures for getting your case back to you. If a stranger finds it in an airport concourse, for example, that is a different matter. Okoban has more lost and found offices in more than 2,200 airports.

Virgin Atlantic to order 12 A350-1000s

Virgin is expected to announce it is ordering 12 A350-1000 to replace part of its B747-400 fleet. Negotiations have been ongoing with engine manufacturer Rolls Royce (see Rupert Steiner in Rolls Royce ready to land £700m engine deal as Virgin Atlantic look set to sign £2.8bn order with Airbus for 12 new planes.  The aircraft are expected to be delivered in 2019.

Quoted in Reuters last week,  Airbus sees A350 orders soon, sources eye Virgin A350-1000 deal, a spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic said,

British Airways removes economy hot meals from longest short-haul services

 

British Airways is understood to be removing the hot meal service offered to economy passengers on its longer 'Band 4' short-haul routes.

Sources within the airline state that the hot dishes will be replaced by a chilled snack, and the news has been discussed on our forum today.

The flights affected are those to Athens, Bucharest, Istanbul, Larnaca, St Petersburg and Sofia.

The move will allow the carrier to cater for the outbound and inbound flights from Heathrow.

A spokesperson for BA said:

"We are moving to ‘return catering’ on all our short-haul services, including the longer length flights, which will ensure consistency of quality across all our European destinations." 

The news follows speculation by several media outlets that BA is considering removing complimentary catering from short-haul flights.

When Business Traveller posed the question to BA's new CEO Alex Cruz last month, he said that a decision had yet to be made on the subject.

ba.com

Mark Caswell

SOURCES: BUSINESS TRAVELLER

Burj Al Arab opens outdoor terrace

The Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai has opened a new outdoor terrace. The 10,000 sqm outdoor facility stretches 100 metres out into the sea and is home to Scape Restaurant and Bar, and two pools: a 612 sqm freshwater pool and an 828 sqm saltwater pool.

The architectural form of the terrace reflects the shape of the Burj Al Arab and is linked by a central walkway, flanked on either side by artificial beaches and 32 private air-conditioned cabanas (available for rent for an extra charge).

Emirates adds second live in-flight sports channel

Emirates has added a second dedicated live sports channel to its Ice IFE system available on over 90 B777 aircraft (with selected A380 aircraft to follow from this month).

Sports 24 Extra complements the existing Sports 24 channel, and will enable the carrier to show more live sports events this summer, including:

Will Emirates introduce premium economy?

Readers regularly ask us why no Gulf-based airline offers a premium economy class. It’s a valid question seeing as all the main rivals to Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways (the Gulf’s three main airlines) offer a premium economy cabin of one sort of another.

Delta to make all in-flight IFE free to view

Delta is to make all in-flight entertainment available on its Delta Studio platform free to access for all passengers on two-class aircraft by July 1. The US carrier says it will be the only US airline to offer all in-flight entertainment for free.

The Delta Studio offering is available on 90 per cent of the carrier’s fleet, with streaming to personal devices possible on 1,000 aircraft, and a further 400 equipped with seatback systems.

Delta plans to add new GoGo wifi to more than 600 aircraft

Delta Airlines has announced it will continue to expand its wifi offering on international flights with a partnership with GoGo.

The new announcement sees the airline commit to 2Ku, Gogo’s new in-flight Wi-Fi technology, for a further 350 aircraft. Delta says that this will mean it will have a total total 2Ku commitment to more than 600 aircraft in its mainline fleet.

Gogo says that 2Ku is next-generation technology that provides consistent, uninterrupted coverage nearly anywhere in the world, including over oceans. Installation of 2Ku will offer customers faster speeds and bandwidth more than 20 times that of Gogo’s ATG technology, allowing for video streaming functionality.

tar Alliance announces technology enhancements

Star Alliance has announced plans for a number of technology enhancements, designed to “provide smoother service to the Alliance’s customers but also reduce infrastructure requirements and handling costs at all of the 1,300 airports the Alliance is serving today”.

The group is to launch a new IT baggage “hub” for its member carriers by the end of this year, which will simplify the process, “significantly reducing the number of baggage issues and providing faster and more accurate information for our customer service agents”.

The alliance said that “Baggage processes are currently complicated by the fact that the relevant information resides in many different systems”, and that “In addition to those operating at the individual Star Alliance member airlines, each airport is running its own baggage system, thus making it highly complex to retrieve the current status of bags, to locate bags within the systems and to take effective remedial action if bags are mishandled”.

What You Need To Know About Using ATMs Abroad

Making withdrawals off of debit cards through ATMs abroad can sometimes be wrought with problems, annoyances, confusion, or, in rare cases, all out disaster. Additional foreign transaction bank fees and ATM fees add up, sometimes your card will not work in certain countries. Occasionally, the machine will “eat” your card, there is always a risk of being mugged during or after making an ATM transaction, there is a chance that your card number and/ or password can be scraped by thieves using a variety of methods, and, sometimes, the machine simply does not give you all (or any) of the money you attempt to withdraw.

Excess Baggage Allowance: How To Avoid It

This might not come across as news if you are a frequent traveler, but for a newbie traveler or flyer, it is important to know what Excess Baggage Allowance is.

Excess Baggage Allowance is what you pay for luggage that exceeds the limits for weight, size, or number of pieces allowed by a particular carrier. Excess baggage requires payment of additional freight and may be sent separately as cargo and not as accompanied baggage.

How to Protect Your PC When You Fly

The 2009 arrests of the couple accused of stealing over 1,000 checked bags from the Phoenix airport highlighted one of the baggage theft risks that airline passengers face each time they fly. Another ongoing problem inside the airline terminal is the risks passengers face of having their laptop computer lost, stolen, or damaged. When it comes to protecting your laptop, two areas of risks are taking the computer through security and keeping your computer safe inside the terminal.

Putting Computers in Checked Baggage

There is a very simple way to avoid this problem-just don’t ever put your computer or your computer data in checked baggage. There is the obvious risk of a lost, damage, or stolen checked luggage. Also, airlines often load bags on top of one another in the cargo hold of your flight. Hundreds of pounds of pressure in conjunction with the low temperatures in unheated cargo compartments may lead to cracks or damage to a laptop screen or damage to other computer components.