|
|
Please tell us what you think of this article by clicking on a button & rating it:-
S.Africa: BEE - Black Economic Empowerment Airline collapses - another one bites the dustDate Posted: Friday 02-May-2008By Brownyn Gerretsen, Karyn Maughan, Louise Flanagan & Lebogang Seale
Nationwide Airlines has lurched from crisis to crisis since an engine fell off one of its planes last year.
On Tuesday morning, after the airline's failure to secure the black economic empowerment deal that it hoped would save it from financial oblivion, the shutters finally went down on the Nationwide airport counters, flights were cancelled and shell-shocked staff were told that they shouldn't bother to come into work.
First Officer Daniel Perry, the hero pilot who won praise for steering the stricken Nationwide plane to safety last year, told The Mercury he had only learnt that his employer had "ceased operating" after he had landed a flight in Cape Town.
| 'How do you think we are feeling?' |
"We were going into the office to pick up keys... the doors were closed and we were just told that Nationwide was no longer operating and we would have to get another flight back to Johannesburg," he said.
Ironically, Tuesday was Perry's last day at work. He is set to start working at another airline next month.
"I think my timing was very lucky," he said.
The decision was said to have also taken its chief operating officer, Rodger Whittle, by surprise. He was reported to have been "dumbfounded" when passing on the news to staff.
Nationwide employees at Durban International Airport responded to questions on how they were feeling with: "How do you think we are feeling? We've just been told we don't have jobs."
| 'We've just been told we don't have jobs' |
On Tuesday, Nationwide had 13 flights due to take off from Johannesburg, but only nine got off the ground. Another 13 were scheduled to leave on Wednesday.
Department of Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi said the Civil Aviation Act regulations demand that airlines offer their passengers some form of guarantees to cover the cost of their tickets.
This would include "some sort of repatriation" for stranded international passengers.
"There have to be some guarantees in those tickets."
The aviation licensing councils and Nationwide would have to work out those details.
Airports Company of South Africa spokesperson Colin Naidoo said Nationwide passengers at Durban International Airport on Tuesday would be assisted to get on to other flights at a temporary help station outside the Nationwide counters.
He said the desk would be manned by Nationwide staff, but that the airline would need to decide who would pay for those flights and if it would refund passengers.
Staff had reportedly been asked to work on a voluntary basis on Wednesday, a request that most scoffed at.
Some airlines also indicated that, while they were able to assist stranded Nationwide passengers on their flights, they would have to charge them for tickets as their Nationwide tickets could not be guaranteed in light of the airline's financial situation. Nationwide chief executive Vernon Bricknell and his staff, however, refused to respond to requests for information about what options were available to passengers stranded or unable to travel.
In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, Bricknell blamed the airline's shock collapse on the business losses it suffered after the engine incident prompted the Civil Aviation Authority to ground its entire fleet for a "protracted" period.
A subsequent 30% increase in fuel costs coupled with dwindling passenger numbers had not helped the situation, Bricknell said.
As its financial woes worsened, Nationwide became increasingly desperate to secure investment from Durban-based black empowerment company African General Equity (AGE). But, although AGE chief executive Reggie Naidoo announced earlier this year that the company would finalise a deal to buy a 51% stake in Nationwide by "April or May", the deal did not materialise.
Naidoo said yesterday that his company had pulled out of the deal after deciding it was not viable.
"We started the due diligence on the company on February 27 and on Friday April 26 came to the conclusion that it was not a viable opportunity for us. We were hoping that we could come in and continue with the airline's work . . . We were very passionate about the business, but our hands are tied," he said. Naidoo added that he hoped the ceasing of operations "was not to do with us" as he realised the deal would have seen his company injecting a large amount of money into the airline.
He added that he was genuinely saddened by the airline's situation.
"I don't think South Africa needs another airline to shut," he said.
To make matters worse, The Mercury has established that about 50 pilots, represented by the Airline Pilots' Association, issued summons against Nationwide six days ago - because the airline had taken the period pilots had been unable to fly, because of Nationwide's grounding, out of their leave. Their case is to be decided by the Johannesburg Labour Court.
|