The sudden airspace closure in Niger on Sunday, August 6, is adding up to two hours on certain routes for airlines flying between Europe and southern Africa.
Military rulers announced the closure of the country’s airspace on Sunday, warning that any attempt to violate the closure would be met with an “energetic and immediate response”.
The closure came after threats of intervention from the international community, which is demanding that the miliary junta step down and restore power to the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoom, according to airspace-africa.com.
According to Simple Flying, the closure has affected all flights between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Flights to Niger’s Niamey Diori Hamani International Airport have been cancelled.
On Monday, August 7, BA56 from JNB to LHR had to be diverted back to Johannesburg due to the sudden Niger airspace closure while the Airbus A380 was flying over neighbouring Chad.
Air France has announced it will stop operating flights to Niamey until further notice, but will operate flights between Paris and Lomé in Togo. It said it would also suspend flights to Bamako in Mali and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso until Friday, August 11. This is reported to be because those two countries are ruled by military juntas who are supportive of the Niger coup.
Air France has said its passengers on routes to sub-Saharan destinations should expect flight times to be lengthened by 15 minutes to two hours, due to detours it will have to make.
KLM flights too have been detoured. A spokesperson said, on average, travellers would be delayed by 15-20 minutes, adding that this mainly affected flights to and from Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Flights to and from Entebbe have also been slightly delayed, while passengers on flights to and from Accra and Lagos face fewer disruptions.
What is clear is that until the situation in Niger changes, there will be no overflights by airlines plying routes between Africa and Europe, so flight times will be increased.
Niger joins the Saharan countries of Sudan, South Sudan and Libya, all of which have closed their airspace due to internal turmoil.
