By Garth Calitz Photos by Trevor Cohen, Guy Martin and Garth Calitz There are airshows, there are fly-ins, and then there are days when aviation becomes something considerably more important than aircraft flying overhead. Saturday, 3 October 2026, at Wonderboom National Airport was firmly in the third category. The Elders’ Flight 2026 was an opportunity to give senior citizens a taste of flight, but that description rather undersells what happened. For more than 500 elderly S

By Garth Calitz Airlink will launch twice-daily flights between Lanseria and Cape Town in December, giving Gauteng travellers another way south and, for some, the considerably more attractive prospect of avoiding the cross-city expedition to O.R. Tambo. Airlink is spreading its wings at Lanseria International Airport, announcing that it will launch twice-daily services between Lanseria and Cape Town from 4 December 2026. The new route will be Airlink’s first scheduled domesti

By Garth Calitz New SACAA charges came into effect on 1 October, proving once again that in South African aviation, the aircraft may be grounded, but the invoices never are. South African pilots, aircraft owners, operators and aviation organisations were greeted on 1 October with another round of increased fees from the South African Civil Aviation Authority. The new charges affect a range of regulatory services, including pilot licensing, examinations, aircraft operations, m

By Rob Russell Who remembers the good old days of travelling? No visa, and if you needed one, you ambled down to the local embassy of the country you wanted to visit; they asked when you were leaving, checked your passport, stamped it, and off you go. No hassle at the airport, checking in, ambling through security and duty-free and then a peaceful and relaxing flight to your destination of choice. That was until one fateful day in September 2001. The world woke up to terroris

By Garth Calitz FlySafair takes SAA Technical to court after an Airbus A320 broke loose during a tow and collided with a parked Boeing 737 at OR Tambo There are few things more reassuring at an international airport than watching an aircraft being towed. The engines are shut down, the passengers are safely nowhere near it, the aircraft isn't flying anywhere under its own power and a tug is doing the hard work. It should, in theory, be one of the least dramatic activities taki

By Garth Calitz EASA suspends all Elixir operations following fatal Rochefort crash as investigators search for answers Elixir Aircraft, one of Europe's newer general aviation manufacturers, has been dealt a devastating blow following the death of two of its production test pilots in a crash in France on 1 October. The accident, involving an Elixir aircraft during a test flight near Rochefort-Saint-Agnant Airport in western France, has prompted an immediate grounding of the e

The Boeing 777-9 has returned to the aviation headlines for all the wrong reasons, with the aircraft's final certification campaign facing another potential delay as Boeing and GE Aerospace offer different explanations for what is holding up the start of the crucial ETOPS testing programme. Boeing says the Federal Aviation Administration has not yet authorised the start of the ETOPS flight-test campaign, with the process linked to additional work on the GE9X engine and, speci

By Garth Calitz Northrop Grumman’s YFQ-48A Talon Blue has completed its first flight, taking another major step towards a future in which autonomous aircraft operate alongside human pilots in the world’s most advanced air forces. The age of the autonomous combat aircraft has taken another step forward – and this time there was nobody sitting in the cockpit to enjoy the view. Northrop Grumman’s YFQ-48A Talon Blue completed its first flight at Mojave Air and Space Port in Calif

By Garth Calitz Airbus has officially put its newest freighter into the air, with the first A350F completing its maiden flight from Toulouse on 29 September 2026. It is a significant moment not only for Airbus but for the entire heavy air-cargo market, where Boeing has enjoyed something approaching squatter’s rights for decades. The 747 Freighter became an icon, the 777F has been enormously successful, and Airbus has never really managed to loosen Boeing’s grip on the upper e

By Garth Calitz Nothing sticks — not controversy, not court cases, not government investigations. Apparently, not even R85 million. There are companies that occasionally have a bad experience with a government tender. There are companies that have an unfortunate contract dispute. There are companies that discover, usually to their considerable annoyance, that regulators actually read the paperwork. And then there is Flyfofa. We have all heard some details about the many isola