Britain, the European Union, India and Australia have joined the growing list of countries temporarily barring the plane from their airspace.

Some families of the 157 people who died in last Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash have 

visited the site near Addis Ababa to lay flowers.

Experts are coming the wreckage in an attempt establish the cause of the crash – and particuarly to learn if there are similarities with the Lion Air crash outside the Indonesia capital Jakarta last October.

The US Federal Aviation Authority insists the Boeing 737 Max is airworthy.

However US Senators and aviation workers are urging the government to keep the plane grounded until the investigations can confirm this.

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The action echoes that of Vietnam, South Korea and Singapore.

They’ve joined the list of countries that have barred the plane, waring for experts to examine the sound and data boxes from the Ethiopian Airways flight that crashed near Addis Ababa last Sunday and  see whether it is unsafe or just unlucky.

ends intro

Australia is not among the countries already using the 300 Boeing 737 Max.

With 5 000 on order, the plane’s become the biggest seller in aviation history.

The United States Federal Aviation Authority insists it is airworthy, despite the two crashes that cost 346 lives in the past five months.

A growing list of countries is simply not prepared to chance it.

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Their meeting in Harare today follows Washington’s  year-long extension of punitive measures against Mnangagwa and some of his party colleagues for posing a threat to U.S. foreign policy.

The communique at the end of the binational commission between Zimbabwe and South Africa  says the adverse effects of sanctions slapped on Robert Mugabe’s government for stealing elections and violating human rights has been far-reaching across Zimbabwe’s political and socio-economic spectrums.

The presidents agreed on the important of boosting trade and investment to driven the strategic relationship between the  Southern African neighbours. 

They expressed their condolences to the families of those who died in last Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash near Addis Ababa.

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The passengers and crew included people from 33 nationalities. It is not immediately clear if there were South Africans among them.

The ill-fated Boeing 737 Max arrived in Addis Ababa this morning from Johannesburg.

It is the same model as the Lion Air flight that crashed minutes after take off at Jakarta last October killing all 189 people aboard.

5 000 of this aircraft, known as the workhorse of the skies,  are on order around the world.

The crashed plan was delivered to Ethiopian Airlines, the biggest carrier in Sub Saharan Africa, last November.

Many of the passengers who embarked at Bole Airport were headed for a United Nations  conference opening in Nairobi tomorrow.

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Investigators will be looking the fact that the ill-fated Boeing 737 Max is the same make an model as the Lion Air flight that crashed shortly after take off in Jakarta less that five months ago.

Ethiopian Airlines is sub-Sahara Africa’s largest carrier with the  newest fleet.

It has a solid safety record. Nine years an Ethiopian Airliens plane crashed into the Mediterranean after taking off from Beirut with the loss of all 90 people aboard.

It is too early to offer reasons for today’a crash but it impossible not to take account of the cast that, like the Lion Air disaster that killed all 189 people aboard, it involved new aircraft from the same manufacturer.

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There’s a message for flat-broke South African Airways: hang in there!

It runs in parallel with Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan’s warning that the airline must clean out corruption if it hopes to survive.

And it supersedes the call by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni that that company, which has not made a profit since 2011, must go to the wall.

The latter is perfectly right in saying no bank or enterprise would get involved with SAA in its current financial state.

But Mboweni’s been repudiated by President Cyril Ramaphosa because, he says, closing the airline would necessitate immediate repayment of its R22 billion debt. This would enormously damage the fiscus.

There’s speculation that Ramaphosa’s remarks have turned his new finance minister into a lame duck: a political has-been who is allowed to say what he wants because he  is only serving his time until after next year’s election.

In fact, Mboweni might have been directed to throw a stone into the bush to see what reaction he could provoke from SAA staff and trade unions who have a veritable bottle of bitter pills to swallow if survival is the option.

These range from exposing the corruption within their ranks to accepting marginal salary increases at best.

My introductory message is based on African aviation predictions.

If SAA can survive it can pick itself up on the approaching boom in African air travel.

IATA figures show the increase in air traffic between sub-Saharan Africa and China will run at 11% over the next decade which will place it among the fastest growing routes on the planet.

Projected traffic between South Africa and China is pretty much in line with this.

China is projected to buy 7690 new aircraft by 2037 with a staggering price tag of $1,2 trillion.

This makes the contest between Airbus and Boeing  for sales to China the most interesting aviation battleground.

US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is doing Boeing no favours  in this dogfight.

Just this week, Airbus executives are in Beijing talking about the sale of 180 Airbus A320s at price of $18 billion dollars.

If it does get to contest the skies tomorrow, SAA will face new competition.

As US voters cast their ballots in the midterm elections, the Airbus 330-800, which will be the warhorse in that battle, made its maiden flight in Toulouse.

The wide-bodied liner with a capacity of 257 passengers is powered by Rolls Royce Trent 7000 engines that are quieter than their predecessors and 14% more fuel efficient.

Air Mauritius, Air Senegal and RwandAir have firmed up their orders for the new aircraft.

The nascent Uganda Air has signed a memorandum of understanding for two A330-800s.

Nigeria that has taken an on-off approach to reinstating a national carrier could add to the competition

However, there is plenty for everyone. 

The dearth of road and rail infrastructure makes air travel between African countries –  and particularly the  movement of perishable goods – indispensable as their population grows to 1,4 billion.

Ethiopian Airlines, which has a fleet more than twice the size of SAA’s, will indubitably remain the continental giant and an example the South African carrier should emulate wherever possible.

It’s major competitors are not SAA, Kenya Airways and Egyptair but Qatar, Emirates and Turkish Airlines.

Its growth has come from a protected regulatory  framework, the cross subsidization of airport revenue and concessionary fees at Ethiopian airports.

Competitive pricing has enabled it to make the frankly substandard Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa a hub competing with Singapore, Istanbul and Dubai.

The bulk of Ethiopia Airlines’ planes are wide-bodied liners from the Boeing and Airbus range. 

The fleet is constantly updated with planes being  exchanged every six-and-a-half years.

Somehow SAA has to change its message from “ah, if only”  to becoming the Little Red Engine saying: “I think I can.”

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