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Pietermaritzburg - Two separate applications which could affect the future of Velvet Sky airlines were postponed by the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday.
A postponement date still has to be decided.
The first application, brought by Umzano Transport Services of Avoca Hills in Durban, was for a business rescue operator to be appointed for the airline. The other application was for a winding up order.
A business rescue service is a fairly new measure under the Companies Act.
Umzano claims that Velvet Sky owes it more than R3.9m. Umzano CEO Lingam Peter said there was no prospect of the company being able to pay the nearly R100m it owed creditors.
However, the airline's CEO Dhevan Pillay said that if capital was forthcoming from a possible new investor, Velvet Sky would be able to meet its daily expenses and operate profitably within reasonable time.
He said talks with two neighbouring African countries for additional routes had taken place, and one country had agreed to allow the company in.
This route would be dollar-based, and while the costs would be about the same as internal flights, the revenue would be higher.
Maintenance service provision would be switched, saving about R2m a month.
In-flight advertising, pay-to-eat and maximisation of cargo carrying capacity could bring in about R2.5m to R3m a month.
Velvet Sky is negotiating with a bank for passengers to buy tickets on credit over a year.
The reason for the airline's debt was that it started with a business model designed to operate three aircraft.
However, it was only able to start with one aircraft as the other two were being refurbished. This cut cash flow. Only one aircraft operated until October.
