{"id":22939,"date":"2023-09-25T01:01:41","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T05:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=22939"},"modified":"2023-09-25T07:28:27","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T11:28:27","slug":"military-coup-niger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/military-coup-niger\/","title":{"rendered":"Niger Military Coup: Airspace Reopens"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5>Update: 25 Sep 2023<\/h5>\n<p>Updated Notam for overflights &#8211; the airspace of Niger remains open at all levels for international flights following a coup back in July. However it now <strong>excludes French-registered aircraft, or those chartered by French interests<\/strong> due to a political dispute. DRRR Notam A1168\/23 refers.<\/p>\n<h5>Update: 4 Sep 2023<\/h5>\n<p class=\"p1\">Niger\u2019s airspace officially <b>reopened<\/b> for the first time since early August, following a military coup in July. The <b>Niamey FIR is now available at all levels<\/b> &#8211; as long as your transponder stays on. Security on the ground is still a problem. The US continues to <a href=\"https:\/\/travel.state.gov\/content\/travel\/en\/traveladvisories\/traveladvisories\/niger-travel-advisory.html\"><span class=\"s1\">advise<\/span><\/a> against all travel there.<\/p>\n<p>Major airlines flying between Europe and West Africa have resumed overflying the DRRR\/Niamey FIR.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_23309\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23309\" class=\"wp-image-23309 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Niger-reopened-airspace-1024x944.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"944\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Niger-reopened-airspace-1024x944.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Niger-reopened-airspace-300x277.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Niger-reopened-airspace-768x708.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Niger-reopened-airspace-1536x1417.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Niger-reopened-airspace.jpg 1864w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-23309\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">BAW82 DNAA-EGLL: 6 Sep 2023<\/p><\/div>\n<h5>Timeline of closures:<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>4 Sep: <span style=\"background-color: #66f28b;\">Airspace reopens<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>7 Aug &#8211; 4 Sep:<\/strong> <strong><span style=\"background-color: #f5493d;\">Airspace closed.<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>31 July &#8211; 7 Aug: <span style=\"background-color: #66f28b;\">Airspace reopened.<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>26 July &#8211; 31 July:<\/strong> <strong><span style=\"background-color: #f5493d;\">Airspace closed.<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Background<\/h4>\n<p>Niger&#8217;s airspace and airports were closed to all flights on July 26, following a <strong>military coup.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Troops announced a coup on national TV after <strong>detaining the president<\/strong>. They said they had dissolved the constitution, suspended all institutions and <strong>closed the nation&#8217;s land and air borders. <\/strong>Soon after the announcement, the several Notams appeared advising that the airspace over Niger was closed, along with all airports in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Niger straddles two FIRs &#8211; DRRR\/Niamey (controlled by Niger) and FTTJ\/N&#8217;Djamena (controlled by Chad). <strong>But it was just the territory of Niger itself that was closed, not the whole DRRR\/Niamey FIR:<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_22943\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22943\" class=\"wp-image-22943 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Niger-map-1024x703.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"703\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Niger-map-1024x703.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Niger-map-300x206.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Niger-map-768x527.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Niger-map-1536x1054.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Niger-map.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-22943\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Red shaded area = Niger country boundaries. This is where the airspace was closed, not the whole DRRR FIR.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This closure made African routings quite challenging &#8211; a region already plagued with various airspace closures and risk warnings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sudan:<\/strong> Airspace remains closed to all civilian flights following a military coup in April 2023. <a href=\"https:\/\/safeairspace.net\/sudan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">More info.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>South Sudan:<\/strong> Air navigation services remain suspended above FL245 following the coup in Sudan. <a href=\"https:\/\/safeairspace.net\/south-sudan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">More info.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Libya:<\/strong> Flight ban for US and UK operators (several other countries have warnings in place) due to risks associated with the civil war that has been ongoing since 2014. <a href=\"https:\/\/safeairspace.net\/libya\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">More info.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The map below shows the issue:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Sudan-Africa-airspace-maps-2-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-22941 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Sudan-Africa-airspace-maps-2-1024x726.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"726\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Sudan-Africa-airspace-maps-2-1024x726.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Sudan-Africa-airspace-maps-2-300x213.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Sudan-Africa-airspace-maps-2-768x545.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Sudan-Africa-airspace-maps-2-1536x1089.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Sudan-Africa-airspace-maps-2-2048x1452.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Flights from Europe to West Africa and beyond<\/strong> had to route around Niger, via Mali and Burkina Faso in the western part of the DRRR\/Niamey FIR, or via the GOOO\/Dakar FIR<em> (British Airways DNAA-EGLL in the map below)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Flights between West Africa and the Middle East<\/strong> also had this extra dogleg around Niger if electing to fly the northerly route across Africa <em>(Qatar DNMM-OTBH)<\/em> or else chose the southerly route avoiding Sudan and Yemen <em>(Emirates DGAA-OMDB)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>And yep, there were still the likes of Egyptair <strong>overflying Libyan airspace<\/strong> on some flights!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-22945\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Africa-map-with-routings-1024x726.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"726\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Africa-map-with-routings-1024x726.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Africa-map-with-routings-300x213.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Africa-map-with-routings-768x545.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Africa-map-with-routings-1536x1089.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Africa-map-with-routings-2048x1452.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We will update this article with further info as we get it. If you have anything to share, please <a href=\"mailto:news@ops.group\">let us know.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update: 25 Sep 2023 Updated Notam for overflights &#8211; the airspace of Niger remains open&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":22943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2205,1226,2206,2207],"class_list":{"0":"post-22939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-drrn","9":"tag-drrr","10":"tag-niamey","11":"tag-niger"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22939"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23421,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22939\/revisions\/23421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}