The shooting-down of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 over Iran on January 8th provoked outrage around the world—not least in Iran, where it triggered a new round of anti-government protests. Mixed with the grief and anger was disbelief that an international airline was willing—and allowed—to fly through a potential conflict zone. Such catastrophes are not as rare as they should be...
On 7 January, one day before Iran shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran, as commercial jets piled into the busy air corridor over neighbouring Iraq, I tweeted: “I hope the lessons of MH17 are not being forgotten.”
That reference to Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 – which was shot down by separatist rebels over eastern Ukraine in 2014 – might seem like an eerie premonition. But it was simply common sense. My concerns were rooted in a basic grasp of the risks of flying through potential conflict zones. Last week’s tragedy has exposed the abject failure of western governments, intelligence agencies and airline industry groups to protect travellers, as they pledged to in the aftermath of MH17.
Consider what was known in the days leading up to the loss of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752...
I was awestruck last year when I visited Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the most famous and perhaps the most beautiful shopping mall in the world. Few can resist gawping upon entering this masterpiece of neoclassical architecture, with its sweeping mosaic tiles, palazzo-style facades and huge iron and glass dome. An even bigger shock awaits ordinary folk who glance at the prices in the posh fashion outlets lining its streets. But not everyone is left aghast. For some tourists the Galleria Vittorio is a place to spend, not gaze. And for non-Europeans, in particular, the splurging comes with the expectation of a 22% VAT refund at the airport. Yet few tourists receive their dues. By the time retailers and middlemen have had their fun, these shoppers are lucky to get 14% back. And it’s a problem that affects more than just super-rich visitors to Milan...
Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s chief executive, last week told US lawmakers that he would have grounded the 737 Max in a heartbeat – if only he’d known about the dangers posed by the aircraft’s anti-stall mechanism. His apparent ignorance of this design flaw led to the deaths of 189 people in October 2018, when Lion Air Flight 610 slammed into the Java Sea. Five months later, once Boeing had convinced most of the world that poorly trained Indonesian pilots were probably to blame for the disaster, another 157 people died on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
To the ordinary person in the street, glaring similarities between the crashes – both of which involved the same, brand new aircraft type nosediving at the same stage of their flight – made it obvious that the 737 Max should be grounded...
During the early years of Syria’s civil war, Middle East Airlines (MEA), the flag-carrier of neighbouring Lebanon, benefited from an uncomfortable spike in demand due to its proximity to the battleground.
With Syrian airspace all but closed to civilian traffic, most refugees who could afford airline tickets drove 110km from Damascus to Beirut before boarding their flights.
That footfall has subsided in recent years as the war-torn state hobbles towards some semblance of normality. At home, flag-carrier Syrian Arab Airlines is plotting to re-build its network with new Russian aircraft that are not subject to Western sanctions. Abroad, a handful of international airlines have tentative plans to resume operations in Damascus.
And while less cross-border demand seems like bad news for MEA, Mohamad El-Hout, the airline’s longstanding chairman, actually wants the trend to continue...
Angola’s aviation sector took a symbolic step forward in April, when the European Union lifted all restrictions on TAAG Angola operating in its airspace.
The state-owned flag-carrier had been trying to shake off its EU ban for more than a decade: first gaining an exemption for Portuguese flights; then securing the right to serve elsewhere in Europe with specific aircraft; and finally being given unfettered access to the continent.
By removing TAAG from its blacklist, Brussels signalled that the mismanagement and corruption associated with the airline no longer poses a danger to the safety of flight.
But, on a broader commercial level, there remains little positive to say about civil aviation in Angola...
Desiré Balazire Bantu was appointed chief executive of Congo Airways in 2016 with a mandate to deliver sustainable growth at the state-owned flag-carrier, which launched services the previous year.
His aim of deploying 10 aircraft by 2020 quickly unravelled when the then president, Joseph Kabila, refused to step down at the end of his term, igniting a full-blown political crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
It was not until this January that a successor replaced Kabila and relative calm returned to capital city Kinshasa...
In the decade since Sri Lanka’s civil war came to an end, tourism in the island nation has grown fivefold to more than 2.3 million visitors per year.
The sector accounted for 5% of GDP in 2018, almost exactly matching the amount of money that Sri Lanka’s government spends on servicing its foreign debt. With an ambitious target of 5 million visitors in 2021, officials had been hoping that tourism could pull the country out of its budgetary crisis.
That optimism evaporated on Easter Sunday, however, when a team of suicide bombers inspired by Islamic State killed more than 250 people in coordinated attacks on hotels and churches across the island...
British Airways poured money into marketing this year by re-painting four of its planes in heritage liveries and running a series of TV and online advertisements hailing 100 years of flight by the flag carrier.
The campaign – which drafted in celebrities like Olivia Colman – sought to rekindle BA’s historic reputation as “the world’s favorite airline”.
Yet the company seems oblivious of the thing that made it so popular in the past: looking after customers.
Striking pilots are not due to walk off their jobs for another fortnight and BA is already in the doghouse over its chaotic handling of the situation. As well as forcing affected customers to wait for hours on its chronically under-staffed call centers, the airline has spread the misery by wrongly telling other passengers that they need to re-book...
Ryanair wants to grow its existing subsidiaries rather than setting up more airlines, though management will not rule out acquisitions if rival carriers fly into difficulty during the winter season.
The Irish company has adopted a multi-brand strategy in recent months by establishing three sister carriers to Ryanair DAC: Austria-based Lauda, Poland-based Buzz and Malta Air. It has also set up a dormant UK subsidiary to minimize brexit-related disruption.
“With the airlines that we have at the moment we've got a huge amount of options,” chief financial officer Neil Sorahan told me...
