[AMcWhirter]

Niger’s airspace was closed on Sunday night.

This affected flights between Europe and South Africa which now had to re-route and in some cases refuel en route.

It’s unclear for how long this situation will last.

Independent.co.uk reports on UK flights.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/british-airways-flights-niger-airspace-b2388703.html

Looks as though it’s also affecting air services to points other than Southern Africa.

Aviation24.be has an overview of flights out of mainland Europe.

Military junta closing airspace over Niger due to foreign threats causes disturbances for air traffic

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LuganoPirate, AndrewinHK

[AMcWhirter]

For those of you who may be intending to fly to Africa then here is how KLM is managing the situation.

https://nltimes.nl/2023/08/07/klm-flights-also-detouring-niger-closed-airspace?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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DavidSmith2

[BackOfThePlane]

You’ve got to feel a bit sorry for Chad right now….

[DavidSmith2]

There are plenty of social media reports and speculation here in Ghana, that Mali and Burkina Faso may also block their airspace in solidarity with Niger. My guess is this would only relate to any attempt at military intervention, but there is quite a bit of unrest. That of course would present much more significant problems in terms of flights to Ghana and Nigeria as well as Cote d’Ivoire. Let us hope that the speculation is wide of the mark!

[AlexFACT]

This reminds me of the seventies and eighties, when South African Airways always had to fly “around the bulge of Africa”.
Due to sanctions against the apartheid regime, no South African registered aircraft was allowed to fly across the African mainland.
We live in crazy times!

[SenatorGold]

Many African countries closed their airspace to South African aircraft from the early 1960s. Whilst Angola was under Portuguese control South African Airways was able to stop in Luanda before heading around the bulge to Europe. Other stops included Ilha do Sal in Cape Verde (also then under Portuguese control) and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. In 1986 Commonwealth member countries (with one exception) agreed sanctions against apartheid South Africa including air links. As a result, Qantas replaced their Johannesburg service with flights to Harare whilst BCal started flights via Lusaka to Gaborone lest flights to Johannesburg be suspended as a result of sanctions. When BA bought BCal, they took over this route and operated it with ex BCal DC10s

[Nick Pike]

For a while at some point in the 1970s Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire permitted SAA to refuel. I remember stopping in Sal on Cape Verde at around 3am to do the same…

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SenatorGold

[AMcWhirter]

Back then SAA operated a few 747SPs which had the range to fly JNB to Europe non-stop.

But when SAA operated its regular 747s they would make a refuelling stop in one of the destinations mentioned above.

I also thought the Azores was another SAA calling point en route to Europe.

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SenatorGold

[SenatorGold]

From the mid 1970s SAA was able to fly their B747s nonstop southbound from Europe to Johannesburg. Northbound they couldn’t do non stop with the B747 on account of the high altitude at Johannesburg and resulting weight and fuel limitations. I’m not sure if SAA ever flew the B747 SP from Johannesburg to LHR, but in or about March 1977 they began a once weekly B747 SP non stop service from Cape Town to LHR.

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AMcWhirter

[LuganoPirate]

A friend of my son’s flew down from Zurich the day after with Swiss who flew over Algeria, bypassing Niger and then down over the Atlantic to JNB. The flight took an hour longer than usual. I saw Lufthansa flew down the Eastern side of Africa

This prompted me to look at the day prior, having read a report that BA turned back to JNB having almost reached the Niger border. This rather surprised me, as I saw Lufthansa made a stop in Lagos to refuel, Swiss just carried on bypassing Niger as did KLM I think. I can’t recall AF but I think they also bypassed Niger and flew straight to Paris.

It caused me to wonder why did BA not make a fuelling stop in Accra if they needed to? They have done that a couple of times in the in the past so Accra can handle the 380. It would have saved a lot of inconvenience for the passengers.

[Author]

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