Comair, which operates British Airways (BA) and Kulula flights in SA, says it is confident that its reputation remains intact despite its recent grounding by the country’s aviation regulator due to safety concerns.
“We are confident that the suspension will have no impact on Comair’s reputation,” Comair CEO Glenn Orsmond told Business Day at the weekend.
He said the suspension was purely a precautionary measure and the thorough inspection of Comair’s records over five days has indicated that it operates a “safe and reliable air service, as we have done for the past 75 years”.
His comments came just before a local BA aircraft had trouble landing in Cape Town on Saturday after experiencing landing gear issues, with various reports suggesting that the flight crew had to abort landing on four occasions.
This was a few days after the SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) reinstated Comair’s licence after it moved to ground the operator citing safety concerns, which included an engine and landing gear failure on some of its aircraft.
The suspension, which lasted for five days, stalled the recovery of Comair, a company that was once the shining beacon of SA’s aviation industry, going more than seven decades without making a loss. It had largely emerged from business rescue, a form of bankruptcy protection, alongside many other airline operators across the world hard hit by Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Orsmond said the recent grounding cost the company much-needed income, but it is too early to determine the precise amount. Over the festive season, the company lost about R100m in revenue as countries moved to restrict travel to and from SA in the wake of the discovery of the Omicron variant.
“Undoubtedly Comair lost revenue during the five flying days that the ... precautionary suspension was effective, during one of the busier weekends in the SA domestic travel calendar,” Orsmond said, adding that the company is cognisant of the inconvenience and uncertainty that the precautionary suspension has caused its customers.
He said Comair, at its own cost, attempted to accommodate as many passengers as it could with other airlines and chartered a wide-bodied Airbus A340-500 through SAA for a number of flights.
“Comair’s revenue-generation ability lies within its ability to fly its schedule. As of 10pm on [March 16] the ... suspension was lifted, too late for that day’s flight schedule and severely impacting on Thursday’s schedule. Nevertheless, if Comair is allowed to fly its schedule it can generate revenue,” Orsmond said.
He said Comair is working to restore its schedule and anticipates operations to be back to normal by Tuesday.
“Our immediate priority is to restore our schedule, so customers can be confident that they can get to their destinations as planned. We are also aware that our customer communication should have been better, and improving this is an immediate focus,” Orsmond said.
On the landing gear incident at the weekend, the company said: “We confirm that following a landing gear warning indication on BA6324 on final approach from Gqeberha to Cape Town International Airport, the pilot performed standard safety checks, and once the correct reading was achieved a normal landing was carried out.”
Phuthego Mojapele, an aviation analyst, said the reputational damage suffered by Comair could lead to its demise.
“As a business, an airline is as good as its reputation. If it is in tatters, then there is no way of recovering from that ... when such safety issues reoccur, they hamper confidence in the market. It’s about safety and reliability,” Mojapele said.
He said Comair will not necessarily feel the impact now because of existing bookings, but will do so within the next six weeks when accumulated bookings have been cleared.
“Then people will start looking at other airlines because of lack of confidence in safety and reliability. It’s going to be difficult for them [Comair] and chances of them being grounded again [following the weekend incident] are high. This could be the beginning of the end for Comair,” Mojapele said.
Mojapele addied that customers should brace for higher airline ticket prices also because of the escalating fuel prices and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.