Johannesburg - Low-cost airline Velvet Sky, which allegedly owes BP
Southern more than R29M, was given until March 5 to respond to
BP's application to provisionally liquidate the airline on Friday.
In the Pietermaritzburg High Court, BP's counsel Gerrie
Roberts SC said Velvet Sky had breached its undertaking to pay arrears
by February 17 and had not kept up to date with current payments for
aviation fuel.
"Velvet Sky has often delayed paying what was due to BP," he said.
He said the low-cost airline had known two days ago
that BP would launch a provisional liquidation application on Friday,
but had not responded.
Farouk Moosa SC, for Velvet Sky, said negotiations were taking place and denied allegations that the pilots had not been paid.
"Payments to staff are up to date," Moosa said.
Judge Johann Ploos van Amstel said that while
liquidation applications were usually urgent, he did not envisage
problems should Velvet Sky be given until March 5 to respond, and
adjourned the matter to March 7.
BP's attorney Thulani Mciwa said in court papers that
in view of Velvet Sky's obvious credit difficulties it would not be able
to obtain aviation fuel from any major fuel companies in South Africa.
He had heard that Velvet Sky was living
from hand to mouth by using credit cards to buy small amounts of fuel
from other sources.
However, it was not possible to operate its fleet continuously without the proper fuel supply.
Mciwa said the court should ensure that no creditors
were unfairly preferred and that Velvet Sky's assets should be preserved
as soon as possible.
The airline drew attention earlier this week when it
experienced flight delays on Wednesday and all flights were cancelled on
Thursday.
Velvet Sky spokesperson Gary Webb said there was a
dispute with a service provider, as the airline was in the process of
changing service providers, and that this was not concluded in time to
operate.
After delays on Friday morning, flights were scheduled to start at around 13:00.
The broad-based black economic empowerment company is based in Durban and flies between that city, Johannesburg, and Cape Town.