Air France suspends flights to some nearby countries after Niger airspace closure

An Air France plane carrying French nationals and other European citizens, who have been evacuated from Sudan via Djibouti, is seen at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy, near Paris, France, April 26, 2023. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File Photo

LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Air France has suspended flights to and from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and Bamako in Mali until Aug. 11, the company said on Monday, after Niger’s junta closed its airspace on Sunday, with longer flight times expected in the west African region.

The disruption adds to a band of African airspace facing geopolitical disruptions including Libya and Sudan, with some flights facing up to 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in detours.

« The closure of Niger’s airspace dramatically widens the area over which most commercial flights between Europe and southern Africa cannot fly, » tracking service FlightRadar24 said in a blog post.

A spokesperson added that Air France expected longer flight times from sub-Saharan hub airports and that flights between Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and Accra in Ghana were set to operate non-stop.

A spokesperson for Brussels Airlines added that flight times could be between an hour and a half to three and a half hours longer for rerouted flights and could include a fuel stop.

Reporting by Joanna Plucinska and Ilona Wissenbach
Additional reporting by Paolo Laudini and Tim Hepher
Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter

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