The slots could be returned to the different airlines if they reapplied and met requirements. Photo Supplied
The Air Services Licensing Council of South Africa (ASLC) has stripped more licences and frequency certificates from Mango, Comair and SAA, which have been re-issued to budding operators including Fly Safair.
Fly Safair announced this week that it had received approval to operate flights to 11 new destinations within the southern African region, following a meeting of the council.
“The council took quite a lot of slots from Mango, Comair and SAA. They all suffered the same fate because there are no plans by them to operate the routes,” an insider said.
SAA’s redistributed licences and frequencies include what has been triumphantly heralded as flagships by Fly Safair – from Cape Town and Johannesburg to Gaborone, Livingstone, Luanda, Lusaka, Maputo, and Victoria Falls. In addition, the airline has been approved for frequencies from Johannesburg to Bulawayo, Nairobi and the Seychelles, as well as between Cape Town and Windhoek.
“Some of the slots have been awarded to Airlink and other small operators to move cargo and all that. They gave Lift Airways some routes, like the Johannesburg to Durban. All these are SAA routes that have been withdrawn,” the source said.
He said the action was unprecedented in local aviation but the Council was following the letter of the law in redistributing slots that were not being utilised.
The slots could be returned to the different airlines if they reapplied and met requirements.
“With Mango it is a matter of sorting itself out with the new strategic partner according to the indication of the BRP (business rescue process). If that is completed they can come back and make representations but it is quite a stringent process, everyone has to comply with the rules,” an insider said.
Comair, on the other hand, is beyond hope because it was liquidated and could not claim the routes as part of the liquidation process.
“The routes belong to government and it decides who they are allocated to,” he said.
The council is reportedly still to consider SAA’s international licences and frequencies after dealing with the regional issues but there is less competition for its international routes as other carriers do not have the capacity and base their range on a five-hour radius.
“There is little appettite for those routes because it is not the business model of the other airlines. You need bigger jets, larger crews, fees to pay airport slots and all that. It is better left to SAA because there are long-standing agreements between countries,” the source said.
Meanwhile, SAA said on Tuesday that it was proud of the results of a global survey in which its employees were named among the best airline staff in Africa.
Spokesperson Vimla Maistry said the Skytrax World Airline Awards have recognised SAA’s employees for their friendliness and efficiency, and that this award highlights the consistent excellent service delivered by airport and on-board customer service teams.
She said the team took the runner-up position on the continent, which was especially significant considering employees have been through a painful and challenging restructuring process.
“Throughout its long and proud history SAA has always placed customers at the centre of everything that we do, and that philosophy is held dear by all our staff. They are hard-working, dedicated and focused every single day making sure that passengers are safe, happy, and comfortable. All of us at SAA are incredibly proud of this achievement,” said SAA’s interim chairperson and CEO, Professor John Lamola.
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