No crisis, says minister after grounding of aircraft

2018 the year Comair said it was moving much of its major maintenance work overseas

Transport minister Fikile Mbalula and the aviation industry moved to assure the public that there is no crisis in the sector even as it remains unclear what led to several aircraft being grounded on Tuesday.

“We are not in a state of crisis,” Mbalula said at a media briefing in Cape Town on Tuesday. “All is on track, there is no crisis.” The airlines’ schedules would return to normal before the end of the week, he said.

The crisis-hit national carrier, SAA, which survives on government handouts, together with low-cost subsidiary Mango and Comair, the operator of Kulula and domestic British Airways flights, had planes grounded after an inspection by the SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacca) at SAA Technical (SAAT).

The authority ruled that the affected aircraft could not operate until issues of “non-compliances” flagged in an inspection had been dealt with.

Sacca did not clearly say whether the noncompliance issues related to aircraft safety.

SAAT maintains the fleet of airline companies including Comair, Mango and SAA and has been rocked by corruption allegations, which resulted in the National Union of Metalworkers of SA picketing outside its offices in Johannesburg in June.

In 2018, Comair said it was moving much of its major maintenance work overseas.

A loss of confidence in aviation safety would be devastating for a struggling economy that is set to grow just 0.6% in 2019.

The sector employs 6.9-million people across Africa and is responsible for $80bn in economic activity, according to a report by the International Air Transport Association.

NORMAL SCHEDULE

“Sacca is one of the bestperforming entities in the department of transport. They are doing a good job and we support them, we don’t interfere in their work. We won’t give specifics” about what led to the groundings, Mbalula said.

Comair executive manager for flight operations Deen Gielink said Comair expects its full fleet to be back in operation by Wednesday and it will be running its normal schedule.

In a statement issued earlier in the day, Comair said it is committed to providing a safe, secure, reliable and quality airline service to its customers.

SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said the national carrier would operate an amended flight schedule. “While there were only four domestic flight cancellations, SAA took steps to combine flights and deploy bigger aircraft to accommodate affected passengers. This has significantly reduced the impact of the inconvenience on the customers,” he said.

Mango Airlines spokesperson Benediction Zubane did not respond to an e-mailed query.

FLEET MAINTENANCE

Sacca spokesperson Phindiwe Gwebu told Business Day on Tuesday that the noncompliance related to maintenance issues and said the regulator is not happy with how SAAT conducted maintenance on the fleet.

The Sunday Times previously reported that SAA denied that SAAT had used fake parts on aircraft it services. That was after a Mango flight made an emergency landing at OR Tambo International Airport in September.

Earlier in 2019, Comair found itself mired in controversy after initially failing to ground its Boeing 737 Max 8 after a similar aircraft operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed near Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people aboard.

On Tuesday, Gwebu said the noncompliance does not relate

to suspect spare parts.

“We are a regulator, we are mandated to ensure airline safety through an audit process,” Gwebu said.

“The people who can give a 100% assurance on whether it is safe to fly is the airline, as they are supposed to self-correct safety-related issues on an ongoing basis.”

Airlines Association of Southern Africa CEO Chris Zweigenthal said it is happy the issues raised by Sacca have been dealt with speedily.

“It is a compliance issue more than anything. But it’s speculative as to what the issues are,” said Zweigenthal.

National Union of Metalworkers of SA spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said that the grounding demonstrates poor management and corruption at SAAT.

“As Numsa we have consistently said the corruption at SAAT has a direct impact on the quality of service because this is a compliance issue.

“The board of SAAT must be scrapped,” Hlubi-Majola said.