Kaya 959 Reporter
The news of the grounding of Comair’s British Airways and Kulula flights has left many commuters and workers concerned.
The flights were grounded after the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) raised safety concerns.
Kaya Biz with Gugulethu Mfuphi was recently joined by Phuthego Mojapele, an aviation expert who gave more insight behind SACAA’s recent indefinite suspension of Comair’s operations.
Listen to the full conversation here:
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This should have neve happened
South Africa has had an impressive record when it comes to the safety of commercial flights.
In 30 years, South Africa has not seen a single fatal commercial airline incident.
Mojapele said that at the centre of the avoidable mess that Comair finds itself is that they were constantly cutting corners when it came to safety.
“This situation could have been avoided, to be honest. Comair has been having issues with their safety, I mean you have three different flights that were diverting due to technical problems, two engines and one landing gear.”
“Beyond that, there are other issues that were not even reported, but the SACAA is in possession of all those other issues.”
“When you compromise the safety of the business you are trying to do and you’re cutting corners, it is going cost you quite severely,” says Mojapele.
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FlySafair prices of tickets skyrocket
Consumers were left shocked when FlySafair tickets rose to over R 3000 per ticket, which was mainly due to the grounding of Comair flights. Tickets were ranging from R3,000 to R3,281 with the cheapest fare being R1,532.
Some consumers even took to social media and demanded that the Competition Commission should look into the exorbitant prices consumers were expected to pay.
FlySafair then responded by saying their prices are based on the supply and demand scales, “FlySafair, like other airlines around the world, uses a system called “demand-based pricing”. Our fares remain nice and low provided you book ahead and remain flexible on your travel dates and times.” they wrote.
Fluted Regulations
The grounding of Comair stems from the issues that they had, all these incidents happened in three consecutive weeks. Mojapele suggests that it looks like the management wasn’t prepared to sort out maintenance issues.
“Comair is operating two services, which is British Airways as well as Kulula, now the AOE, which is the license holder has got stringent conditions on how you should conduct yourself as an operator, and how you should carry out your maintenance program.”
“If your maintenance is not according to what the SACAA stipulates, you are required by law to adhere to those conditions.” says Mojapele.
The National Union of Metal Workers (Numsa) were the first to call for Comair CEO, Glenn Orsmond, to immediately step down.
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