Opposition grows against Fly 540 Kenya managers
The unceremonious sacking of a number of staff by Fly 540 management once again highlighted the woes that company has, facing law suits by creditors, by former staff and increasingly by the media on the prowl to expose the dark secrets which have until now been kept under wraps, well almost anyway as sources within the airline continue to spill the beans.
While little can be published right now, due to the need to protect those sources as well as in some cases the lack of a second independent confirmation, it is clear that the losses the airline made are far from to be blamed on start up cost for sister operations in West Africa but simply as a result of an atrociously poor performance in the East African market and horrendous decisions taken by the management of the airline. Frequent aircraft changes on the route for instance to Entebbe in the past and often time long delays have put potential clients off the airline, after many of the faithful deserted already in the aftermath of the vengeful sacking of former country manageress Jackie Arkle. Jackie now holds a senior position at RwandAir, a glowing endorsement for her abilities and a damning interdiction for the ‘sackers‘ hence exposed for their true motives.
The staff now dismissed are reportedly in contact with lawyers already representing others with plans to sue the airline, and its top management, and one source has indicated that they might also enjoin into the winding up case against 540, presently pending before court as the airline failed to pay its obligations following a judgement against them earlier in the year by Justice Havelock.
‘This just keeps piling up and the more it gets spread in the media and potential travellers read about it, the more uncertainty there is in the market. It can seriously affect passengers’ decisions which airline to use and even if they decide not to go to KQ there is Jetlink on almost many of the same routes. If I were in the shoes of the new FastJet guys, I know what has to be done to restore market confidence, sack the 540 managers‘ said a regular commentator from Nairobi’s aviation scene. And indeed, there appears to be intense head scratching and brainstorming among the new FastJet top brass of how to resolve this problem, for as long as this is a festering sore their own future reputation simply cannot begin to shape up as something fundamentally different from the predecessors.
Watch this space as this saga is certain to have a few more twists in the tail.
