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Johannesburg - FlySafair, which plans to launch Johannesburg to Cape Town flights by end September, has had a spanner thrown into the works in the form of a high court application by Comair and Skywise founders.
Last week Comair, which is the only surviving private operator of scheduled flights in South Africa, reported a massive increase in its earnings, and flagged to shareholders that it was prepared to slug it out in court to ensure a level playing field in the South African aviation industry: “We will continue to focus on the behaviour of the state owned airlines where it impacts on the prospects of Comair, and expect to spend some time in the courts in order to enforce their compliance with legislation and policy”.
We did, however, expect the subject of their court actions to be the state carriers, so it was a bit of a surprise to see FlySafair targeted.
The issue at hand is similar to that which Fastjet ran into when they tried to start up domestic flights in South Africa earlier this year – legislation requires a 75% South African ownership in order to operate domestic scheduled flights.
When FlySafair applied for a licence to operate flights in SA, Comair cried foul, saying FlySafair does not meet the 75% local ownership requirement. Comair drew attention to inconsistencies in FlySafair’s application to the Air Services Licensing Council, with some documents mentioning that 100% of FlySafair was owned by ASL.
FlySafair clarified that it is owned by Safair Operations (Pty) Limited. Safair Operations in turn is own by Hugh Flynn (25%), Elmar Conradie (25%), Dave Andrew (25%) and the remainder by Safair Aviation Ireland Limited (which in turn is owned by the Irish ASL Aviation Group).
Comair further alleged that Hugh Flynn is based in Ireland and that this means that he doesn’t qualify for purposes of meeting the 75% requirement. At the start of September, South Africa’s Air Services Licensing Authority dismissed objections to FlySafair’s licence.
Now Comair (together with Skywise founders) have elevated the issue by launching a high court application against FlySafair obtaining a licence. It has added into the mix an allegation that the share classes Flynn, Conradie and Andrew own are an inferior class of shares to the balance.
- Fin24
* Rob Baker is co-owner of South Africa Travel Online. Follow him on twitter on @southafricaTO.
Last week Comair, which is the only surviving private operator of scheduled flights in South Africa, reported a massive increase in its earnings, and flagged to shareholders that it was prepared to slug it out in court to ensure a level playing field in the South African aviation industry: “We will continue to focus on the behaviour of the state owned airlines where it impacts on the prospects of Comair, and expect to spend some time in the courts in order to enforce their compliance with legislation and policy”.
We did, however, expect the subject of their court actions to be the state carriers, so it was a bit of a surprise to see FlySafair targeted.
The issue at hand is similar to that which Fastjet ran into when they tried to start up domestic flights in South Africa earlier this year – legislation requires a 75% South African ownership in order to operate domestic scheduled flights.
When FlySafair applied for a licence to operate flights in SA, Comair cried foul, saying FlySafair does not meet the 75% local ownership requirement. Comair drew attention to inconsistencies in FlySafair’s application to the Air Services Licensing Council, with some documents mentioning that 100% of FlySafair was owned by ASL.
FlySafair clarified that it is owned by Safair Operations (Pty) Limited. Safair Operations in turn is own by Hugh Flynn (25%), Elmar Conradie (25%), Dave Andrew (25%) and the remainder by Safair Aviation Ireland Limited (which in turn is owned by the Irish ASL Aviation Group).
Comair further alleged that Hugh Flynn is based in Ireland and that this means that he doesn’t qualify for purposes of meeting the 75% requirement. At the start of September, South Africa’s Air Services Licensing Authority dismissed objections to FlySafair’s licence.
Now Comair (together with Skywise founders) have elevated the issue by launching a high court application against FlySafair obtaining a licence. It has added into the mix an allegation that the share classes Flynn, Conradie and Andrew own are an inferior class of shares to the balance.
- Fin24
* Rob Baker is co-owner of South Africa Travel Online. Follow him on twitter on @southafricaTO.
