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(Bloomberg) -- Airlines were forced to divert some flights after Niger restricted its airspace on Sunday night, making it more difficult for planes to fly across parts of Africa.

British Airways was one of the carriers affected by Niger’s partial closure of airspace, with at least five flights to and from its London hubs diverting — including services from Nairobi, Cape Town and flights to and from Johannesburg. Air France, KLM and Deutsche Lufthansa AG also saw services diverted or delayed. 

BA confirmed in social media posts that some flights, including one from London Heathrow to Johannesburg, had been diverted because of the airspace closure over Niger. 

“We’ve apologised to those customers affected for the disruption to their journeys,” BA said in a statement. “Our teams are working hard to get them on their way again as quickly as possible.”

An Air France spokesman said via email that the airline has suspended all services to Niger until further notice, and to Mali and Burkina Faso until August 11. The carrier also said longer flight times of between 15 minutes and 2 hours were to be expected to and from several sub-Saharan destinations. 

The sudden airspace closure in Niger makes it harder for airlines flying between Europe and southern Africa, adding an hour or more on to certain routes, according to tracking service FlightRadar24.

There are also airspace restrictions over Sudan and Libya, meaning commercial aircraft cannot fly over. This means airlines need to extend flight times and cater for more fuel.

Read More: Niger Closes Its Airspace as It Warns of a Foreign Attack

Some flights were already en-route when the airspace closed, causing them to make a diversion or reroute, per FlightRadar24.

Niger’s junta restricted access to the country’s airspace Sunday, citing warnings of an attack from foreign powers as a deadline issued by West African neighbors — warning they could intervene to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum — expired.

The junta that took power in a July 26 coup has rejected all calls to restore democracy and warned against any foreign interference. Hundreds of protesters gathered in the capital, Niamey on Sunday, in support of the coup leaders. 

Niger’s airspace restrictions will remain in place until further notice, according to a statement from the junta on state television on Sunday.

--With assistance from Katarina Hoije.

(Updates with comment from Air France in fifth paragraph.)

Musa Nuhu, director-general of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), says airlines must have strong financial capacity and a minimum of six aircraft to be allowed to operate in the country.

Nuhu spoke during a virtual meeting with aviation correspondents over the weekend.

He said the major problems facing domestic airline operation is due to lack of capacity to overcome challenges.

The director-general said the new policy is not only for new startups but also for existing operators, adding that existing operators have been given a deadline to comply with the policy.

Prior to now, domestic airline operators are required to have at least three airworthy aircraft before commencing operation.

“The problem is that a lot of the airlines don’t even have the capacity to meet current financial obligations,” Nuhu said.

“If you have three aircraft for instance and you lose one out of it, it has become a problem to meet up with your operations. Then, you start to have issues of flight delays, cancellations and all that.

“The number of aircraft you will have will depend on the kind of operations you want to do. You can imagine somebody who comes in with just one or two aircraft and one of the aircraft goes out of business, and sells tickets to the passengers, thinking of what will happen.

“For you to have six aircraft, it shows you have a very strong financial background of running an airline.

“It is not only for new entrants, but the old ones too have a period by which they have to comply. If everybody has one or two aircraft, we will keep having this recurring problem. We have to avoid that.

“People will criticise, but every country is different. We have to look at our own peculiar history and try and come up with solution, but regulations are not cast in stone.

“If the situation changes, the regulation would be reviewed accordingly. Whenever it is necessary, we don’t have to wait for five years before we make amendments.”

‘MORE AIRCRAFT IN NIGERIA’S REGISTRY THAN THE ENTIRE WEST AFRICAN’

Nuhu further said Nigeria has many airlines but only a few of them are operating with an insufficient number of aircraft.

The NCAA boss said any airline that could afford to acquire six aircraft has the financial capacity to operate scheduled service.

He added that with such capacity, it would not go under after a few years, while still having its name in the NCAA registry.

“There are more aircraft in Nigeria’s registry than the entire West Africa. The number of airlines, air operator certificate (AOC), airports and co. they have, are not as much as we have in Nigeria. It is very huge, complex, and there are huge demands to cope with in the industry,” Nuhu added.

“From records, about 12 years ago, we had only 16 AOCs, right now, we have 32, out of which 12 are scheduled operators.

“We cannot keep operating the way we are operating. Changes have to come in and we have started the process.

“We are acquiring a regulatory software and in the next one or two weeks, we are going to be ready with the software and training of our staff is going to start on the use of the software. 

“We are going to make sure that 80 percent to 90 percent of NCAA processes are automated and also third parties are going to be automated.”

(Bloomberg) -- Thai Airways International Pcl and Turkish Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday with the aim of forming a joint-venture partnership and working together on keenly-contested Asia-Europe routes. 

Airline partnerships typically involve coordinating schedules and sharing revenue. Qantas Airways Ltd. and Emirates, for example, collaborate on Europe-Australia services. Tie-ups require approval from competition authorities.

Read More: Earnings Surge for Main Thai Airlines as Tourists Flock Back

An agreement would help the carriers expand their networks. Thai Airways said it plans to launch daily flights between Bangkok and Istanbul, with a start date for the service to be announced Wednesday. Turkish Airlines already flies twice daily to the Thai capital.

Thailand’s national carrier is still under court-monitored debt restructuring after filing for bankruptcy protection in 2020, when Covid added further strain to an airline that had already suffered multiple losses over a decade. It now operates about 65 aircraft compared with over 100 before the pandemic. 

Chief Executive Officer Chai Eamsiri told told Bloomberg News in June that the company plans to order more jets, including 30 widebodies. 

Read More: Turkish Air Says It’s About Two Months Away From Mega Jet Order 

Thai Airways and Turkish Airlines are members of the Star Alliance, which has 26 members including Singapore Airlines Ltd., United Airlines Holdings Inc., Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and ANA Holdings Inc.. Founded in 1997, the Star Alliance is the biggest of the three major global airline groupings, which aim to help carriers better compete commercially as part of a larger bloc.

Air Peace has again achieved another milestone by being the first Nigerian airline to operate a nonstop, direct flight to Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbeans.

The airline’s Boeing 777 aircraft with Registration Number 5N-BW1 departed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport around 14:00hrs on August 5, 2023 on a special business trip to Antigua and Barbuda.

Stanley Olisa, spokesperson of Air Peace, disclosed that the flight concretises the airline’s relationship with the government of Antigua and Barbuda and signals more possibilities of socio-economic payoffs for Nigeria and the Caribbean nation.

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Noting that the flight is not an inaugural flight, Olisa stated that Air Peace is looking to commence scheduled commercial flights into the two-island country and wants Nigerian investors to see the investment opportunities that abound in Antigua and Barbuda, especially in the area of tourism, and factoring her conducive business environment.

Olisa added that tourism is a major revenue earner for Antigua and Barbuda and hinted that the special flight which departed on Saturday is a 4-day trip featuring a key business conference for strategic discourses on investment opportunities, networking and other planned recreational activities around the Antigua Carnival.

Read also:La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort heads for Antigua and Barbuda

It can be recalled that in the last couple of months, there have been media reports about Air Peace being in high-level talks with the government of Antigua and Barbuda over aviation investment in their country. This flight to Antigua confirms these news publications.

British Airways passengers on an Airbus A380 from Johannesburg to London Heathrow went on a 10-hour “flight to nowhere” when Niger’s airspace was suddenly closed late on Sunday night.

Other flights between the UK and South Africa have being re-routed or diverted to take on extra fuel or have returned to their starting points as a result of the closure.

After a military coup ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, the Ecowas regional bloc has threatened intervention to restore the leader.

In response, the ruling junta, led by General Abdourahmane Tchiani, closed the vast country – which is six times the area of Great Britain – to overflying aircraft.

The closure took effect at 11.22pm British time on Sunday, when several UK-South Africa flights were already airborne.

Airspace over Sudan and Libya is already closed to commercial aviation. The addition of Niger means there is now a block to north-south flights across Africa stretching around 2,600 miles from western Niger to the Red Sea.

British Airways flight BA56 from Johannesburg flew as far as Chad before turning back to its starting point. It was operated by an Airbus A380 “SuperJumbo”, with space for nearly 500 passengers.

Flight BA64 from Nairobi to Heathrow took a similar path, turning back after three hours to return to the Kenyan capital.

British Airways flight BA58 from Cape Town to London Heathrow was also diverted via Lagos. It took off as normal early on Sunday evening and followed a normal track over Namibia, Angola, Gabon, Cameroon and Nigeria.