Your Guide to Operating a Flight to Africa: OVF Permits

Business aviation to Africa is in a steady increase, in 2017 alone Africa reported the largest flight hours year-over-year increase at 33.2 percent. While this is an impressive increase in business flights, aircraft operators are still facing challenges in terms of flight ops services, in this article, we will focus on the challenges faced when applying for flight clearances in Africa.

Matt Zeno – Operations Manager at Moonjet Flight Support shared key points to consider while planning a flight clearance application when operating a trip to Africa:

“ In general, for overflight permits in Africa, the flight details are necessary, as of any other region.
The application for overflight should always include the operator’s name, billing address and contacts, aircraft type, aircraft registration number, call sign, the purpose of flight, and the flight schedule.

Some countries require additional information, for example, Ethiopia and Zambia require the full flight route with the entry and exit points.

Gabon and Mali require the Capitan’s name to be included in the application request.

Landing permits will require more information as well, in addition to the needed for the overflight permit. Crew and passengers details must be also included in the application, along with the receiving party details in the country of landing and a scanned copy of the aircraft documents.

Some CAA’s in Africa requires the application to be managed through a secure web interface; aircraft documents and crew details and license must be uploaded to the interface for each flight in Mozambique and Kenya.

This is the general case for most CAAs in Africa. “

Due to the extended requirements at many African locations, it can be very difficult to keep up with the applications and schedule revisions, for the best chance of getting the permit on time, you can dedicate this task to a flight support specialist.

If you have any questions about this article or would like assistance in obtaining flight permits for your next flight to Africa, don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected], you can also try to fill the application request form available through our eForms section flight support request.