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Cape Town - Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) acknowledges and confirmed on Tuesday that a summons was received from Skywise’s legal representatives.
"We are in the process of studying the summons and we have engaged our legal representatives who will respond appropriately as required," ACSA told Fin24.
ACSA maintains that its decisions regarding low-cost airline Skywise have been taken in its (ACSA's) best commercial interests.
"We remain committed to playing our part in ensuring the sustainability of the aviation industry,” ACSA said.
Skywise kicked off legal proceedings in the South Gauteng High Court against Airports Company SA (Acsa) on Monday.
In terms of the summons served on Acsa the low-cost airline is claiming damages as a result of what it alleges to be a breach of contract by Acsa.
READ: Skywise looks back at 14 days of 'turmoil'
Skywise alleges that at the time that Acsa prevented Skywise from flying by suspending its flights, the airline was actually not in arrears due to a deposit of R1.9m Acsa holds from Skywise, the airline's legal representative Graeme Krawitz of Michael Krawitz & Co. told Fin24.
Acsa informed Skywise earlier in December that it is not in a position to accede to the low-cost airline's suggested payment terms for outstanding debt as well as future charges.
Acsa suspended Skywise's flights on December 2 due to unpaid airport charges for landing, take off, parking of aircraft and related service charges. At that time Skywise had already appealed to President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters, Acsa and South African Airways (SAA) for assistance. It also looked for investors.
Skywise's brand ambassador Ndileka Mandela, a granddaughter of Nelson Mandela, also expressed the wish that the authorities would resolve the issue of Skywise's grounding of flights.
ALSO READ: Skywise debt ripples down value chain - ACSA
