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Comair granted interdict to prevent ASLC from grounding it

Comair‚ which operates its own kululu.com airline as well as British Airways flights on domestic routes‚ has obtained an interdict against the Air Services Licensing Council (ASLC) to prevent it from grounding the airline.

It said this followed a meeting in Pretoria on Wednesday at which the ASLC indicated that it could not provide clarity on its intentions and was undecided on whether or not to suspend Comair’s Domestic Air Services Licence.

“As a result of this uncertainty‚ this afternoon Comair obtained an interdict against the ASLC from potentially revoking its license at any time prior to the scheduled interdict hearing set down for Tuesday May 17. Thereafter Comair will have the opportunity to take the decision of the ASLC regarding Comair’s shareholding on review‚” Comair said in a statement.

Erik Venter‚ Comair’s CEO‚ said: “We have resorted to these extra-ordinary and urgent measures to ensure we are able to secure operational certainty for the many thousands of travellers being held to ransom over the potential disruption to their important travel plans. We are pleased that this result will place the burden of decision into a court of law where Comair will be afforded a fair opportunity to make representation as to why we are confident in our compliance with the Act.

“We would like to once again to express our deepest gratitude to our customers for their unwavering support and all the goodwill and wishes they have sent us as we navigate through this frustrating and challenging issue.”

According to Comair‚ the current dispute between the air carrierr and the ASLC originated as a complaint lodged by Flysafair with the ASLC questioning Comair’s level of foreign ownership.

The Air Services Licensing Act stipulates that no more than 25% of the voting rights in a domestic airline may be held by foreigners‚ and Comair is confident that it complies with this limit.

“It is important to note that whilst FlySafair has subsequently stated that it has no interest pursuing its complaint‚ the ASLC is still not satisfied that Comair is compliant with the Air Services Licensing Act‚ which is something we certainly do not agree with” said Venter.

“Although the ASLC has stated that a consequence of non-compliance may be the suspension of our air services licence‚ it has to date not clearly articulated any intention to commence the suspension/cancelation proceedings as stipulated in the Act”.

He added that following numerous failed requests to the ASLC to provide Comair with an undertaking that it would not take any further action against Comair‚ pending the outcome of a legal review‚ Comair had been left with no other alternative but to seek relief through an urgent application to interdict the ASLC from potentially suspending Comair’s domestic license‚ pending the outcome of a review by a court of law.

“The company wishes to stress that the disagreement with the ASLC does not relate to the safety of the company’s operations. The disagreement with the ASLC relates exclusively to a shareholder regulatory issue.”

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