Ekhurhuleni, South Africa- Many South Africans that use Kulula.com and British Airways flights that are run by Comair, have been left gobsmacked after the parent company announced the indefinite suspension of all its flights.
Four out of every 10 domestic tickets sold in the country are British Airways or Kulula.com tickets.
“Comair regrets to advise its flights have been voluntarily suspended from 1 June 2022 pending securing funding to resume operations. If your flight has been cancelled, please don’t travel to the airport unless you have alternative arrangements.
The company’s Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) have advised the process to raise the necessary capital is in progress and there is reason to believe such funding may be secured. Once received, the airline will be able to recommence operations, but regrettably, under these circumstances, the practitioners have no choice but to voluntarily suspend all scheduled flights until the funding is confirmed,” read a statement from Comair.
However, Tourism Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, said the timing of this was not ideal and expressed her concern about the effect it would have on the tourism sector which is still recovering after being rattled by COVID-19 restrictions.
“This comes at a bad time as families are preparing for school holidays and some international holidaymakers are preparing to spend their summer holidays in South Africa. However, our main concern is the effect this will have on tourism,” said the Minister.
Comair CEO, Glenn Orsmond, has since apologized for any inconveniences caused and vowed to resolve Comair’s financial woes as soon as possible.
“We deeply regret the inconvenience this suspension will cause our customers. We did everything we could to avoid it. Comair, the BRPs and the lenders are working all out to get the funding in place so we can resume our normal flight schedule as soon as possible,” said Orsmond.
Comair went into BR in May 2020 but resumed flying in December 2020, whilst still in business rescue. Most recently in March 2022, Comair was forced to ground all flights after safety concerns were raised by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA).
