Football fans, media representatives and other important guests will travel during 28th Orange African Cup of Nations with Small Planet Airlines. Small Planet Airlines will carry passengers until the 15th of February.

The ground handling services provider Baltic Ground Services (BGS) has been successfully serving Czech Airlines for a while now and has renewed the into-plane fuelling services contract for another two years. According to the extended contract, BGS will continue to provide Czech Airlines with into-plane fuelling services until the end of 2013.

Since adding Storm Aviation in the end of 2011, an aircraft maintenance training organization FL Technics Training has further expanded its capabilities. The company is now ready to offer training programmes not only for narrow-body aircraft but also for the wide-bodied ones as well as more than 150 practical and theoretical training courses under the EASA Part 147 certificate.

FL Technics Jets, a company providing business class aircraft line and base maintenance services, has become the first fully authorised Hawker Beechcraft (HBC) business jets service centre in Eastern Europe. The company has joined an extensive network of official HBC global customer support stations and will provide line maintenance services to warranted Hawker 125 series aircraft.

In the upcoming twenty years the number of middle class citizens in India that equals the entire population of the Russian Federation will inevitably cause an increase in demand for aviation services in the region. Last year alone more than 55 million people travelled by air within the country’s borders and, according to Locatory.com experts, the expected growth in the overall number of middle class citizens should bring the figures up by 18% in the next several years. In 2022 the number of air travellers in India will triple and reach 360 million. According to the standards established by the World Bank Group, India is a home country to 400 million poor people who make up a third of the entire poor people population worldwide. They will continue to provide cheap labour in the country which spells countless opportunities for both local and international aviation companies in the region.

Within the next decade the aviation market will be steadily shifting towards the East. Last year airlines based in the area placed exceptionally large aircraft orders. Nonetheless, as Locatory.com points out, the quality and diversity of aircraft technical support services remain largely inferior to those offered in the West. Moreover, the region is still faced with the shortage of high quality MRO services, engine components as well as other aircraft parts.