South African Airways (SAA) is the flag carrier of South Africa. Founded in 1934, the airline is headquartered in Airways Park at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and operates a hub-and-spoke network, serving ten destinations in Africa. The carrier joined Star Alliance in April 2006, making it the first African carrier to sign with one of the three major airline alliances.
The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body commercial aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retained the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating but with two underwing turbofans instead of four. Envisioned in 1964, the initial 737-100 made its first flight in April 1967 and entered service in February 1968 with Lufthansa. The lengthened 737-200 entered service in April 1968, and evolved through four generations, offering several variants for 85 to 215 passengers.
The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the family was followed by the longer A321, the shorter A319, and the even shorter A318 . Final assembly takes place in Toulouse in France; Hamburg in Germany; Tianjin in China since 2009; and Mobile, Alabama in the United States since April 2016.
Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) (Swahili: Kampuni ya Ndege ya Tanzania) is the flag carrier airline of Tanzania. It is based in Dar es Salaam, with its hub at Julius Nyerere International Airport.
Jet Airways (India) Limited, trading as Jet Airways, was an Indian airline based in Delhi, with a training and developmental centre in Mumbai. Incorporated in April 1992 as a limited liability company, the airline began operations as an air taxi operator in 1993. It began full-fledged operations in 1995 with international flights added in 2004. The airline went public in 2005 and in 2007, when it acquired Air Sahara. It was the first and only privately owned Indian airline before the founding of Vistara in 2015. The airline is expected to re-commence its flight operations by the end of 2024, making it the first Indian airline to be revived after ceasing operations.
Boeing Business Jets (BBJ) are versions of Boeing's jet airliners with modifications to serve the private, head of state, and corporate jet market. The jets are capable of flying more than 6,000 nautical miles nonstop and offers more cabin space than traditional long-range business jets. The first BBJ, based on the 737-700, rolled out on July 26, 1998; and had its first flight on September 4, 1998.
21 Squadron SAAF is a squadron of the South African Air Force. It was formed as a bomber squadron in Kenya during World War II and became a VIP transport squadron in the 1960s, a role which it performs to this day. The squadron currently flies two Dassault Falcon 50s, two Cessna Citation Is, a Dassault Falcon 900 and a Boeing BBJ aircraft. 21 Squadron is one of the most active squadrons in the air force with 606 VIP transport flights being made between 2009 and 2012. The Boeing BBJ is used as the presidential aircraft when the President of South Africa travels and designated callsign LMG1.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) is a division of The Boeing Company. It designs, assembles, markets, and sells jet airliners and business jets, and also provides product-related maintenance and training to customers worldwide. BCA operates out of its division headquarters in Renton, Washington, and has more than a dozen engineering, manufacturing, and assembly facilities located throughout the United States and internationally. It includes the assets of the Douglas Aircraft division of the former McDonnell Douglas Corporation, which merged with Boeing in 1997. As of the end of 2021, BCA employed about 35,926 people.
PT Lion Mentari Airlines, operating as Lion Air, is an Indonesian low-cost airline. Based in Jakarta, Lion Air is the country's largest privately run airline, the second largest low-cost airline in Southeast Asia and the largest airline of Indonesia. With Wings Air and Batik Air, Lion Group is the country's largest airline's group. The airline operates domestic as well as international routes, which connects different destinations of Indonesia to Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, India, Japan and Saudi Arabia, as well as charter routes to Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Macau, with more than 630 flights per day.
SpiceJet is an Indian low-cost airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana. As of November 2023, it is the fourth largest airline in India by number of domestic passengers carried, with a market share of 6.2% and connects 73 destinations, including 60 Indian and 13 international from its bases at Delhi and Hyderabad.
Air transports for heads of state and government are, in many countries, provided by the air force in specially equipped airliners or business jets. One such aircraft in particular has become part of popular culture: Air Force One, used by the President of the United States and operated by the United States Air Force. Other well known official aircraft include the Russian presidential aircraft, the British Royal Air Force VIP aircraft, the French Cotam 001, the Royal Canadian Air Force VIP aircraft, the German Konrad Adenauer, the Royal Australian Airforce VIP aircraft, the Japanese Air Force One, the South Korean Code One, the Indian Air India One, the Brazilian Air Force One, and the Israeli Wing of Zion.
A narrow-body aircraft or single-aisle aircraft is an airliner arranged along a single aisle, permitting up to 6-abreast seating in a cabin less than 4 metres (13 ft) in width. In contrast, a wide-body aircraft is a larger airliner usually configured with multiple aisles and a fuselage diameter of more than 5 metres (16 ft), allowing at least seven-abreast seating and often more travel classes.
The competition between Airbus and Boeing has been characterized as a duopoly in the large jet airliner market since the 1990s.
Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company, operating as VietJet Air or Vietjet, is a Vietnamese low-cost airline based in Hanoi. It was the first privately owned airline to be established in Vietnam, being granted its initial approval to operate by the Vietnamese Minister of Finance in November 2007. As of its launch in December 2011, it became the second private airline to offer domestic service in Vietnam, as well as the fifth airline overall to offer civil domestic flights. VietJet Air is owned by Sovico Holdings, HDBank, other organisational investors, and individual stakeholders.
The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, a division of American company Boeing. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) and competes with the Airbus A320neo family. The new series was announced on August 30, 2011. It took its maiden flight on January 29, 2016 and was certified by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in March 2017. The first delivery was a MAX 8 in May 2017 to Malindo Air, with which it commenced service on May 22, 2017.
As of March 2024, the United Airlines fleet consists of 949 mainline aircraft, making it the third-largest commercial airline fleet in the world. United Airlines operates a mix of Airbus and Boeing narrowbody and all Boeing widebody aircraft.
Duduzane Zuma is the son of the former president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma.
Many aviation-related events took place in 2021. The aviation industry continued to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Annabel Vundla, is a South African airline transport pilot, who serves as a Flight Captain at South African Airways (SAA), the national carrier airline of South Africa. She is the first black female flight captain at SAA, since the airline was founded more than 90 years ago. Before that, she served in the South African Air Force and was a member of the presidential cockpit crew between 2005 and 2010. In addition, she is a military flight instructor.
Refilwe Moreetsi, is a South African airline transport pilot, who serves as a Senior First Officer at South African Airways (SAA), the national carrier airline of South Africa. From June 2022, she concurrently serves as the Fatigue Risk Management Specialist (FRMS) at SAA, having served as Deputy FRMS before that; the first black female pilot to serve in those roles in the 90+-year history of the airline.
