FLY AFRICA – WHEN WILL THE TRUTH BE TOLD
(Posted 11th November 2015)
It appears that the so called aviation revolution – Fly Africa’s slogan is #itsarevolution – is eating its children after all as, almost predictably, yet another promised date for the resumption of services in Namibia and Zimbabwe has come and gone.
Readers will recall the full-mouthed statements made by the airline, playing the game of hide and seek with their passengers by promising them a resumption of services, surely if not tomorrow but the day after.
flyafrica.com is pleased to announce the resumption of services between Windhoek – Cape Town and Windhoek – Johannesburg from Monday 9 November.
flyafrica has worked hard with the Department of Civil Aviation in Namibia and appreciate all their support to ensure a swift resolution of the issues that had resulted in the regrettable cancellation of Friday’s flight.
We apologise for the disruption and inconvenience caused to passengers, their families, and loyal flyafrica.com customers.
This statement, still seen on the company’s Facebook page, was promptly proven to have been a load of hot air and passenger comments minced no words of what they thought of the airline and those misleading them. On the same day, if not in the same breath, did the airline also put out a statement about the resumption of their Zimbabwe services as of today, 11th November, again injecting hope into the market where no such hope was justified by the unfolding saga on the ground.
flyafrica Zimbabwe has made the difficult decision today to cancel all flights up to and including Wednesday 11 November.
flyafrica Zimbabwe is still waiting for a court ruling regarding the fraudulently and illegal actions taken by our local partner that resulted in the surrendering of our Aircraft Operating Certificate (AOC). flyafrica Zimbabwe is working hard with the CAAZ and the justice system in Zimbabwe to resolve this matter as speedily as possible. This suspension impacts the airline’s flights between Harare and Johannesburg, Bulawayo and Johannesburg and Victoria Falls and Johannesburg.
It has been alleged that in the interim the airline was still selling tickets for flights from and to and within Zimbabwe and the authorities in Zimbabwe will no doubt check these allegations in detail following complaints made by passenger on the Facebook page of Fly Africa that they bought tickets for flights which then did not operate. That said has the airline a few hours ago then admitted that they did not expect to resume services until at least the 19th of November, remaining grounded up to the 18th of this month as per the statement below:
10 hrs ·
flyafrica.com has made the difficult decision today to cancel all flights on Namibian and Zimbabwean routes up to and including Wednesday 18 November. Unfortunately we are still waiting for court rulings and are working with Namibian and Zimbabwean civil aviation authorities to resolve the matter. The length of wait is uncertain and we are advised it can take between 1 to 5 days for a decision to be reached, currently we are at day 4 of the process. We acknowledge that judicial processes take time and we kindly ask our loyal passengers to have patience as we let the judicial process run its course. We regret disappointing a large number of customers and are increasingly concerned as this number grows each day.
flyafrica.com CEO Adrian Hamilton-Manns: “This has been a very tough couple of weeks for flyafrica.com and our customers. We have been fighting very hard to overcome the obstacles in our way to resume normal flights. Despite this we had to cancel flights and disappoint and inconvenience many of our customers. We totally understand the disruption this has caused and we apologise unreservedly for that. We are committed to our loyal customers and will do everything in our power to resume operations and provide the level of service our customers have come to expect.”
“We have been encouraged by the messages of support and will continue to fight for fair prices and more passenger choice, helping families to connect to more destinations and affordably, and changing the way people do business in Southern Africa. We are devoted to this revolution and will continue to work around the clock to achieve full operations for our valued passengers.”
flyafrica.com thanks loyal passengers for their support and well-wishes, and will continue to work tirelessly to achieve fully operational services.
HAS YOUR FLIGHT BEEN CANCELLED?
What steps to take for passengers:
Passengers booked on www.flyafrica.com via our Call Centre or a Sales Office have be notified of the cancellation of their flight during this period via email and/or sms. Travel agents with clients booked through their reservation systems on flyafrica.com during this period have been notified of the cancellation with an update in their client’s reservation. To call aflyafrica.com sales representative please use one of the following numbers +27 10 100 3540, +263 86 770 00312, or +264 83 330 0370.
All flyafrica.com passengers impacted by these flight cancellations will be offered a refund for their cancelled flight in the original form of payment.
Passengers who had booked flights during this period are asked to submit a refund request to feedback. Passengers booked through their travel agent are asked to submit their refund request directly with their travel agent.
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Notably could only very few messages of support be found to support the airline’s CEO Hamilton-Manns claim to have received messages of support but to the contrary again a wide range of negative comments, which are entirely selfexplanatory. The few comments which received a response from the airline’s social media or corporate communications team did not address the primary line of questions raised and only offered a generic wishy washy response:
Julius Pastor Runyowa New Era Paper Namibia,Windhoek
Namibia’s Directorate of Civil Aviation (DCA) has suspended the operations of FlyAfrica, citing the safety of the airline’s aeroplanes. The DCA says it has discovered that FlyAfrica uses planes that are not authorised under the civil aviation authority’s approved wet lease, which regulates such passenger services.
Further, the DCA says it has taken note of various recently reported incidents concerning the operations of Nomad Aviation, which operates as FlyAfrica, and complaints about the service of the airline, “with greater concern being reports about a recent incident where passengers expressed anxiousness about their safety”.
The DCA is conducting preliminary investigations into the safety of the airline, to determine whether Nomad Aviation is in compliance with the requirements of conducting flights as a certified air operator under the current wet lease arrangement.
“Under her regulatory powers, the Director of Civil Aviation, Angeline Simana, has had no option but to immediately issue an operational directive, applicable from 15h00 on 5th November 2015, prohibiting Nomad (Pty) Ltd, trading as FlyAfrica, from continuing with its services until such time that the DCA has successfully completed a re-validation mission and issued an approval in respect of any such services. This operational directive shall remain in effect until withdrawn by the director,” said the statement issued by Simana.
The statement says the DCA has now also received official communications from the civil aviation authorities in South Africa and Zimbabwe on the operations of FlyAfrica. “In fact, Nomad’s partner in Zimbabwe which enabled their Namibian operations, have had their air operators’ certificate suspended by that country’s civil aviation authority. Despite this development FlyAfrica, without consulting the Directorate of Civil Aviation beforehand, continued with flights utilising planes not authorised by the Namibia Directorate of Civil Aviation.”
“This action [to suspend operations of FlyAfrica] is made in the interest of public safety and maintenance of secure civil aviation services,” Simana said.
However, FlyAfrica on Friday posted on its Facebook page that it “is pleased to announce the resumption of services between Windhoek and Cape Town and Windhoek to Johannesburg from Monday 9 November”.
“FlyAfrica has worked hard with the Department of Civil Aviation in Namibia and appreciates all their support to ensure a swift resolution of the issues that had resulted in the regrettable cancellation of Friday’s flight,” the company said.
FlyAfrica has had angry customers stranded at OR Tambo International Airport in South Africa, as well as in Zimbabwe, following the suspension of its licence by the Zimbabwean civil aviation authority.
“FlyAfrica Zimbabwe has made the difficult decision today to cancel all flights up to and including Wednesday 11 November. FlyAfrica Zimbabwe is still waiting for a court ruling regarding the fraudulent and illegal actions taken by our local partner that resulted in the surrendering of our aircraft operating certificate (AOC),” FlyAfrica CEO Adrian Hamilton-Manns posted on the airline’s Facebook page.
The suspension affects the airline’s flights between Harare and Johannesburg, Bulawayo and Johannesburg and Victoria Falls and Johannesburg.
Hamilton-Manns says the airline is working hard with the Zimbabwean civil aviation authority and justice system to resolve this matter as speedily as possible.
“We are waiting on the ruling from the Zimbabwe High Court, which may take several more days. We have taken the very difficult decision to defer flights for another five days. We will refund all passengers who are affected and apologise again for the disruption caused by the illegal actions of our Zimbabwean partner – it is affecting everybody,” Hamilton-Manns said.
At this stage should Fly Africa perhaps now disclose just how many refunds the airline has processed, both in cash and by vouchers, since their problems in Zimbabwe started on the 28th of October as passenger comments continue to refer to the waiting game they are subjected to. Having repeatedly gone on record that refunds would be made in the same format as payment was done it will be intriguing to see just how reality measures up to such promises. Equally would it only be fair that, instead of only pointing fingers at, what Fly Africa alleges to be illegal actions by their Zimbabwean partners, that perhaps a response would be made about the validity, or not validity of the counterclaims made by said Zimbabwean partners, if indeed Fly Africa has nothing to hide as is perceived from between the lines of their multiple utterances over the past two weeks.
Affected of course are primarily the customers who held and continue to hold bookings for dates when the airline has not operated or cannot operate and who, in the absence of an immediate cash refund, had to find money from elsewhere to buy tickets on other airlines. The Zimbabwe Civil Aviation Authority, in the public interest to offer passengers alternatives on various routes on which Fly Africa has operated before they were compelled to suspend flights, is now reportedly close to deciding on additional route designations to be given to other airlines which are ready to step in and step up to provide Zimbabweans with affordable options of how to travel to such destinations like Johannesburg.
Confidence in Fly Africa stands deeply shaken and affects the entire low cost aviation sector as feedback from other LCC’s operation in Southern Africa suggests, some of which appear to have been inundated with questions of their services would operate as advertised.
Watch this space for breaking and regular aviation news covering the Indian Ocean islands, Eastern and this part of Southern Africa.
