Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula has sought to allay fears that there is a looming aviation crisis. This follows the grounding of several aircraft by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) causing major flight delays across the country.
The CAA had found discrepancies during its audit of South African Airways Technical which conducts maintenance for a number of local carriers, including Comair, South African Airways (SAA) and Mango.
Addressing journalists at Parliament, Mbalula said the delay and grounding of flights was meant purely as a precaution. “The point for everyone is don’t panic. These matters will be attended to before the end of the week. Not anything untoward that we are in a state of crisis. It’s just when the regulator speaks, all matters must be attended to.”
Comair says it expects its full fleet to be back in operation by Wednesday. It further says it has made contingency plans to minimise any disruption to its operations. Executive manager, flight operations, at Comair Deen Gielink has allayed fears of more flight delays, ” We are expecting our full fleet to be back in operation tomorrow morning and we will be running our normal schedule from October 23rd. We would like to thank our customers and other stakeholders for their continued support and understanding.”
