Flysafair / Comair court case

ddg · Unread post by **ddg** » Wed Oct 02, 2013 12:48 pm

I believe the application by Comair was heard yesterday in the Pretoria high court. Anyone know what the outcome was? Did Comair get Flysafair grounded?

CALCULATOR · Unread post by **CALCULATOR** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 6:44 pm

I think it goes to court on FRIDAY 4TH OCTOBER.

GL · Unread post by GL » Thu Oct 03, 2013 9:15 pm

Judge Bertelsman will give his ruling tomorrow - just before he gives his ruling on the Joost vd Westhuizen book application.

GL · Unread post by GL » Sat Oct 05, 2013 9:18 am

So anyone know the outcome?

(I see Joost lost)

Schallas · Unread post by **Schallas** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 10:18 am

NO MORE NEWS ON THIS?

P2T2 · Unread post by **P2T2** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 3:35 pm

From Facebook

Contrary to our expectations, the court today granted an interim interdict against FlySafair and we won’t be starting operations immediately.

All our passengers are guaranteed a full refund for tickets purchased, should they wish to cancel instead of postpone their flights.

We would like to express our deepest apologies for any inconvenience caused. We remain confident that the issue will be resolved.

A full update will follow shortly.

springbok · Unread post by **springbok** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 4:05 pm

From their twitter feed:

The court ordered Comair to accommodate FlySafair passengers by honouring their ticket prices & dates of travel as agreed to with @FlySafair

fly1981 · Unread post by **fly1981** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 4:20 pm

Any idea on how long ops will be postponed???

beckers · Unread post by **beckers** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 4:43 pm

From News 24:

Court rules to ground FlySafair - for now

Johannesburg - The North Gauteng High Court has granted an interim interdict against FlySafair, which won’t be able to take to the skies, pending the outcome of the review of the decision by the Air Services Licensing Council.

“Unfortunately and contrary to our expectations, the court has granted the interdict sought by our competitors. This order effectively prohibits us from starting our operation until such time that the Air Services Licensing Council’s decision to grant Safair the scheduled license has been reviewed by the court,” says Dave Andrew, CEO of FlySafair.

This follows Comair/Skywise launching a joint application to the High Court for an interim interdict preventing FlySafair from starting its scheduled air service, until there was a review of the decision by the ASLA (Air Service Licensing Authority) to grant FlySafair a licence.

FlySafair went ahead with selling airline tickets towards the end of September, and the court has ordered Comair to accommodate FlySafair passengers by honouring their ticket prices & dates of travel as agreed to with FlySafair.

All passengers are also guaranteed a full refund for tickets purchased, should they wish to cancel instead of postpone their flights.

Amongst the allegations made, are that FlySafair doesn’t meet the requirements that 75% of the voting rights are held by residents of the Republic of South Africa. FlySafair is owned by Hugh Flynn (25%), Elmar Conradie (25%), Dave Andrew (25%) and Safair Operations (25%). Safair Operations in turn is owned by the Irish ASL Aviation Group.

In particular it is questioned whether the South Africans are South African enough to be classified as residents, and whether the class of shares owned by the “South Africans” are inferior to those owned ultimately by the Irish ASL Aviation Group (it’s alleged they don’t get paid any dividends, for instance).

- Fin24

grjplanes · Unread post by **grjplanes** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 5:02 pm

I don't understand how is it that SkyWise have any say in this, as they themselves don't even have an AOC yet, while FlySafair received that already. Is SkyWise legally allowed to object then?
Comair is just no surprise nowadays, as they have quickly turned into the greedy moaners over the last few years and just sounds sad lately.

Myle · Unread post by **Myle** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 5:03 pm

I am sure Comair did not plan on being ordered to honour Safair's tickets. At those prices they may be taking a bit of a knock.

Cirrus SR22 · Unread post by **Cirrus SR22** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 5:42 pm

I hear that GL will be talking to Bruce Whitfield about it on The Money Show about it shortly after 6pm tonight.

Cape Talk 567 & Radio 702.

dak · Unread post by **dak** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 7:59 pm

Mmmm
Just not cricket

Comair don't understand free enterprise, clearly not interested in healthy competition.
Shame on you

The flying public would really like a choice of private carrier.
Dak

Mike Gough · Unread post by **Mike Gough** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 8:06 pm

From a PR point of view:

Be careful of what you wish for........

738 · Unread post by **738** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 8:18 pm

[quotethe ="dak"]Mmmm
Just not cricket

Comair don't understand free enterprise, clearly not interested in healthy competition.
Shame on you

The flying public would really like a choice of private carrier.
Dak[/quote]

I totally agree with you, healthy competition will be great, at this stage there is no healthy competition in the South African Airline market, on the other hand,

Its quite simple actually, if a company doesnt have more than X % of South African share holders, they are not
Allowed to own or run an Airline in South Africa, thats the law, and as far as the info we get, Flysafair doesnt comply to that right now, otherwise the judge would have said no problem, Flysafair may operate.

Can you imagine there were no laws protecting SA business, Emirates or the likes would have been here long ago, and there would have been no South African owned Airline operating Domestic or International.