Court orders SAA to delete data that belongs to Airlink

The high court in Johannesburg yesterday ordered the SA Airways (SAA) to stop using, and to destroy, information that belongs to competitor Airlink.

Airlink — which claimed the data contained sensitive commercial information — sought urgent relief from the court after an investigation by The Citizen revealed that the flag carrier’s head of sales and marketing, Carla da Silva, allegedly copied and distributed the information to subordinates during October, while still on Airlink’s payroll, before joining SAA in November 2023.

Airlink filed for an urgent interdict in late March to halt Da Silva and SAA from using its information and, while the interdict was not granted, justice David Unterhalter still ruled on the destruction of the data.

In SAA’s lengthy responding affidavit, Da Silva said she considered the data as publicly available and dismissed Airlink’s claims outright.

In addition, she also suggested that The Citizen or Airlink could have tampered with the data in-between the journalist coming into possession of the information and validating it with Airlink as its information.

In addition, Da Silva denied that there were hidden columns that contained Airlink’s sensitive information on the spreadsheet that emanated from her device.

Instead, she suggested that the whistle-blower who contacted The Citizen did so to damage SAA, which, she said, was on a recovery path after business rescue.

Airlink’s CEO and managing director Rodger Foster said: “Airlink is satisfied with the court outcome and the relief it provides with the order that SAA must delete, destroy and not use any of Airlink’s intellectual property in any way,” he said.

“The outcome also confirms the seriousness and validity of our case against Mrs Da Silva, SAA and the other respondents.”

SAA was contacted for comment but did not respond by the time of publication. —