More trouble for ‘New’ SAA as it loses licences to important routes: report
South African Airway has reportedly lost 20 licences to routes that serve domestic and international passengers.
The Air Services Licensing Council (ASLC) revoked the licences after the troubled airline was unable to prove that it had sufficient personnel, facilities and equipment to service the routes, according to aviation analyst Phuthego Mojapele.
Speaking to ENCA, Mojapele said that the airline wished to keep access to 52 routes and made representations to the council but could not sufficiently justify having 20 of the licences when the routes were not in operation.
Mojapele said the regulations around routes are straightforward – an airline needs to have flights, personnel and points of presence on the routes to keep them.
SAA could not keep planes in the sky over the routes and failed to illustrate to the council that they had a concrete plan of moving the airline forward, he said.
It is unclear which routes have specifically been revoked; however, in a recent meeting with the council, it was divulged that some of them may be of great importance, said the analyst.
SAA has been embroiled in controversy and recently came under the scrutiny of the ASLC. The relaunching of the airline, once it was in business rescue for around a year, has been labelled by the council as a breach of the Air Services Licensing Act.
According to the Department of Public Enterprises, the airline is on a time limit to comply with the council’s investigation into the compliance and/or non-compliance with the act.
The survival of SAA is positioned on its current partnership deal with Takato Consortium, which remains largely unclear. The records of the sale have now been entangled in a Western Cape court case where another prospective buyer of the airline Toto Investments has approached the court to have the reasons for the sale made public.
Government lawyers have, however, argued that if such records were to be provided at this time, the agreement between SAA and Takatso could fall through as conditions could not be fulfilled in time – ending the airline.
SAA is not alone in losing licences to routes; domestic airline Mango had air service licences suspended for up to two years by the Air Services Licensing Council (ASLC).
Mojapele told Cape Talk that based on the needs and considerations of the country and its airline industry, the council suspended Mango’s licence as it was regarded useless.
The South African aviation sector requires that an airline makes use of its licence when in operation, said Mojapele. Mango has, however, been grounded for more than a year, making space for new arrivals to the market.
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