Originally Posted by
mutt
VAMY, what have your heard about Air Atlanta and ACT losing their contracts?
As for FlyNas, I assume the 330 will be Umrah aircraft rather than scheduled like the last time.
What I’ve heard is only rumour & conjecture. There seems to be two rumours circulating.
One rumour is that their commercial operation for Saudia has been put in question, by either GACA or SV Safety & Quality, following an audit that found Air Atlanta woefully lacking. This rumour is not without substance as there have been rumors circulating for sometime now that EASA were closely looking at Air Atlanta’s Operations, mainly because they have concerns about airworthiness & maintenance issues.
The other rumour is that the Icelandic regulatory authority has suspended Air Atlanta’s Icelandic AOC following allegations/proof that the airline were involved in the “carriage of munitions & weapons of war”, more commonly known as “Gun Running” or “ Arms Smuggling”. This activity I believe is contrary to the Icelandic Air Navigation Order, unless special approval is granted by the relevant competent authority. In this case that would have to be the Icelandic authority, as that is the authority/jurisdiction in which the airline is based, their aircraft are registered under and their AOC issued under. I can’t see why, under any circumstances, that the Icelandic authorities would need to be granting that type of approval. In fact I can’t even remember the last time the Icelandic’s were involved in any sort of “armed conflict”, unless of course you go all the way back in history to the time of the Vikings. If my history serves me correctly, there may have been some rape, pillage and skirmish activity involved back then but nothing requiring the use of automatic weapons, depleted uranium artillary shells or the like. However, Air Atlanta’s main customer certainly has a requirement for that type of cargo & indeed their own B747-8F’s have been used to transport that particular type of cargo on more than one occasion.
Coincidentally, a well trodden career path for B747-400 Flight Deck Crew leaving the employ of Air Atlanta is to move to Silkway West, whose rapid expansion as a B747-400/B747-8F cargo operator is closely linked to the supply of “weapons & munitions of war” to the Assad/Putin side of the Syrian war/conflict.
As for the FlyNas A330’s and their useage? Who knows, may be there’ll be deployed in the transport of some Vikings to assist in the conflict in Yemen?
Anyways, they’re just rumours, as yet to be verified as scurrilous or otherwise.