Interview: Bushra Abushora, Tarco Aviation Strategic Planning Director

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Last November, Apollo Aviation Group, a US company that manages aircraft assets, was fined $210,000 by the US government for unwittingly leasing out engines that wound up in the hands of Sudan Airways, the flag-carrier of Sudan, in 2014.

The fact that America lifted its economic embargo of Sudan three years ago failed to deter the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the wing of the US Treasury responsible for sanctions enforcement, from pursuing Apollo.

So, too, did the many mitigating factors that OFAC acknowledged of the case: Apollo had no advance warning that its engines would be passed via intermediaries to Sudan Airways; the engines were ultimately in Sudan for just four months on wet-leased aircraft; and the contract was immediately dissolved when Apollo discovered the slip-up.

To even casual observers, this heavy-handed response leaves little doubt about the seriousness that Washington attaches to violations – deliberate or otherwise – of its sanctions regime.

But it also partly explains why the removal of the decades-old US embargo has done little to ease Sudan’s problems...

Interview: Mustafa Maatug, Afriqiyah Airways Chairman

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Mitiga Airport, Tripoli’s only functioning gateway, resumed operations in December after it was closed for three months due to airstrikes by Khalifa Haftar, the country’s most powerful warlord.

The disruption was just the latest blow for Libya’s long-suffering airlines – their previous hub, Tripoli International Airport, was destroyed in 2014 – yet Mustafa Maatug, the chairman of Afriqiyah Airways, one of Libya’s state-owned flag-carriers, is quick to find a silver lining.

“This sort of problem is happening very rarely,” he told African Aerospace. “It happens from time to time, but these problems will not stop us from operating...

Tunisair's Plan B

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Tunisair is working on a new restructuring plan after its government owner walked away from a proposed overhaul that would have cost $1.3 billion Tunisian dinar ($457 million).

“We will use another plan that doesn't need for us this quantity [of money],” Ilyes Mnakbi, the airline’s chief executive, said on the sidelines of an industry conference in Kuwait. “We will make our own plan – not the government's plan – for restructuring the company. It will be less money than the other one … The government doesn't give us this amount."

Mnakbi provided few details about the revised plan, insisting that management were still weighing up several options. But he reiterated his support for three strategic priorities: fleet renewal; rationalisation of the workforce; and an increased focus on Africa...