Aviation expert Guy Leitch says the aviation industry is expected to continue to experience serious challenges over the next few years. They include dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the rising and unstable fuel prices.
On Tuesday night Comair announced that it had suspend all its kulula.com and British Airways flights that it operated. The suspension of the flights will continue until the airline successfully secures additional funding.
The company’s business rescue practitioners have advised that the process to raise the necessary capital is in progress.
Leitch explains what airlines are also dealing with a skills shortage.
“We are gonna have this problem probably for the next two or three years but one of the biggest problems is the shortage of skills which has hit the market already. Everyone is expecting a shortage of pilots because a lot of them have used the opportunity to leave the industry, to retire early. Now we are seeing massive problems in the UK where staff have left and have to be replaced. The industry is going to find itself hopelessly under-staffed.”
Comair suspends all its kulula.com and British Airways flights:
Frustration from passengers
Passengers say the Comair help desk is not assisting and they had to pay for other flights at their own cost. “We are trying to find flights maybe to return home, or get us to Victoria Falls where we were supposed to go. They can’t even get us on other flights with another company.”
Another stranded passenger says, “Its really frustrating because I’ve been traveling for 23 hours to get here and they don’t let me know or anything and these flights have been booked for two days already and they didn’t let me know. They have taken the money already, and we won’t get the money back.”
” I’m supposed to go to Zimbabwe and I just came from Cyprus. And the messed up thing is British Airways just cancelled flights in the middle of the night, who checks emails at that time,” says another passenger.
