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Johannesburg - South Africa's latest low cost airline, FlySafair, has started selling tickets despite a competitor threatening court action against it, Beeld reported on Tuesday.
The airline started selling tickets online on Monday, with a one-way ticket from Johannesburg to Cape Town costing R798.
Executive head Dave Andrew said it planned to have ten flights per day between the two cities when it started operating on October 17.
But competitor Comair and other parties have indicated they want to secure an interdict against FlySafair, apparently because it does not meet all the required regulations to operate.
FlySafair, however, said it was confident its flights would go ahead.
Comair, which is the only surviving private operator of scheduled flights in South Africa, recently reported a massive increase in its earnings.
It indicated to shareholders that it was prepared to slug it out in court to ensure a level playing field in the South African aviation industry.
According to Rob Baker, co-owner of South Africa Travel Online, 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.
