Jamie Fly Aviation

Russia's second largest airline, Transaero, has finally ceased operations after its licence was revoked by the Russian government. The airline has been facing financial troubles with debts around 1.1bn euros. It filed for bankruptcy on October 1 2015 and stopped ticket sales on that date. Several flights were cancelled. Economy Minister, Alexei Ulyukayev had warned earlier in the month that the airline faces bankruptcy after the airline failed to reach an agreement with its creditors on a restructure of its debt estimated to be worth 250bn roubles ($5.2bn). Aeroflot attempted to buy the airline for a significant 1 rouble before it backed out because of the debt issue. This is what happens when an airline goes bust: Transaero airplanes heading to Spain for storage After 25 years in the air with a fleet of 106 airplanes comprising of mainly long haul Boeings. The airplanes will be grounded after the regulatory agency, Rosaviatsia announced that its poor financial profile is a...

It is quite annoying for individuals to spend millions of Naira or thousands of dollars to train to become pilots only to go back home and be struggling to looking for work. I think it is high time every pilot most especially the unemployed ones fight for what they deserve. They cannot continue to be fighting to be slaves when they can be living like kings in their own country. A Nigerian pilot invests about 12m to train and ends up competing with foreigners for jobs that should ordinarily be his. How did they get to this state? first of all the airlines argue that they are looking for experience and the Nigerians do not have it. That's on one angle. Another angle boils down to the hard reality that is tormenting the Nigerian airline industry. The Nigerian airline industry is relatively small and struggling. The average fleet size of Nigerian airlines ranges between 2 to 5 aircraft. Only Arik, Aero and Air Peace have a fleet of 26, 16 and 10 aircraft. The small fleet size of th...

In my last post I talked about the issue of age in relation to safety and the trend by the government to ban aircraft types involved in plane crashes from the country's aviation industry. Recently the House of Representatives in a session passed a resolution calling for the sack of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Harold Demuren for professional negligence. They recommended the revocation of his professional license as well as criminal prosecution for criminal negligence. They called for the revocation of Dana Air's operating license as well as phasing the MD83 out of the Nigerian aviation industry due to the fact that the NCAA does not have a certified engineer type rated on the MD83. I was dazed when the National Assembly misled Nigerians to belief that the Nigerian aviation sector is weak, that NCAA allows unfit aircraft to fly as well as negligence caused the Dana plane to crash. The report on the Dana crash by the National Assembly is a distortion of fact m...

Like most previous air crashes in Nigeria, the crash of the Dana Air McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operating as flight 992 that killed 153 people on board the plane and several on ground has raised the controversial issue of age and safety of aircraft operating in Nigeria as many tried to rationalize the cause of the crash. It is happening even when the Accident Investigation Bureau is yet to conclude its investigation to the cause of the crash Dana Air MD-83. Photo Credit Airliners.net  The National Assembly also lent its voice to the discourse. The three day hearing on the inquiry to the crash also helped in fueling the controversies as regards the age of airplanes operating in Nigeria in relation to safety. In the hearing both houses shamefully displayed gross ignorance on the subject. During the discourse on the issue of age on the online blogs, newspaper articles and social networking sites, i cringed when i saw the way the commentators were displaying highest level of ignor...

Where are the start-up airlines? Start up airlines battle the challenges of rising fuel prices, lack of airport gate and competition from the major carriers. With the big carriers cutting routes and increasing airfares, this should be the ideal time for start up airlines to set cut rate fares and serve smaller airports that are eager for more flights as in the case of Southwest Airlines in 1971 and Jetblue in 2000. It is not so today as rising fuel prices has eaten deep in the airlines' profit and also the smaller airports have low passenger traffic thus leading to cutting routes by the major carriers on grounds that they are unprofitable. In this reality airlines must fly full planes to make a profit. How would a start up airline set cut rate fares in the face of expensive fuel and unprofitable airports? They would have to contend with the major domestic carriers who have taken over almost all the airport gates. Investors are now scared and wary of lending to an airlin...

Here lies N106US at Carolinas Aviation Museum Photo Credit: Flight Global The Airbus A320-214 registered N106US (MSN 1014) now lies at Carolinas Aviation Museum. The airplane operated as US Airways Flight 1549 and nicked named 'miracle of Hudson' is now on permanent display since June 10 2011 Wing section Photo Credit: Flight Global In January 15, 2009, the aircraft was on its scheduled flight from La Gaurdia Airport in New york when it ingested some Canadian Geese. Captain Sully had to ditch the aircraft into Hudson river. Everyone on board the aircraft survived. The exhibit of the aircraft celebrates all the factors that led to the successful ditching of the aircraft without a loss of life as well as the experience of the crew.It also exhibits the safety of the A320 as it is equipped with extended over water certification. The A320 is one of the few in US Airways' fleet equipped with the safety certification. It is equipped with life vests and raft for every pa...