FLYAFRICA’S operations
in South Africa will
be liquidated, while
employees are left without
pay and still in the dark about
what’s going on at the airline.
Fly Africa Aviation Services
(FAAS), Flyafrica SA Ltd, and
Africa Aircraft Maintenance
– subsidiaries of the holding
company based in Mauritius –
will be placed into liquidation,
says Daniel Terblanche, an
associate director in the
Corporate Finance department
at Deloitte & Touche, who was
appointed as the business
rescue practitioner for the
South African companies.
When the Flyafrica group
was established, a different
company was set up in each
country from which it would
operate. The companies were
then run from SA by FAAS,
which acted as a virtual office
for the airlines.
Daniel told TNW, based
on the limited information
supplied to him, there was
no reasonable prospect of
the SA companies being
rescued. He is therefore
obliged to discontinue the
business rescue proceedings
and to request the High Court
to place the companies in
liquidation.
“Due to a fall-out between
the investor and top
management, a decision
was made by the investor
not to fund the airline with
another cent and this is to the
detriment of the company’s
biggest assets, the people,
who haven’t been paid for
as long as three months,”
employees of FAAS said in a
statement.
The employees of FAAS,
who were responsible for
running Flyafrica’s airlines,
have been left in the dark,
without communication from
management, including new
ceo, Michael Duncan, who
could not be reached for
comment. “Not a single staff
member has received any form
of documentation that will
assist them with their current
financial dilemma (due to no
pay or notice of termination),”
the statement said.
FAAS’s executive
management team was
suspended in January, at which
point staff members were told
Michael would take over as
acting ceo. On February 5,
staff were promised the
restructure of operations.
However, it was not long after
this that Michael “disappeared
without communication”, a
staff member told TNW.
Flyafrica Ltd could not be
reached for comment on what
this meant for the group’s
operations as a whole.
Flyafrica Zim refinanced
Meanwhile, Flyafrica Zimbabwe
will continue to operate as
a separate entity, having
acquired a new investor. The
airline plans to relaunch flights
within the next two weeks.
Flyafrica Zimbabwe operates
separately under an AOC
owned by Nu-Aero private Ltd,
which has recently received a
financial injection of US$6,6m
(R103m) to refinance and
rejuvenate operations on its
existing routes, chairman
Cassidy Mugwagwa, told TNW.
The airline currently operates
under a franchise agreement
with the holding company,
Flyafrica Ltd, through which it
pays 3% for use of the brand.
Now operating as a
separate entity, Flyafrica
Zimbabwe has recruited airline
operational staff who will be
based in Harare. In terms
of supplementary functions
such as marketing and sales,
Cassidy says the airline will
follow its franchise agreement
with the holding company.
“However, should Flyafrica Ltd
prove unable to provide these
services as per the agreement,
we have made provision to
operate on our own and will
offer jobs to existing staff
members before looking
elsewhere.”
Flyafrica Zimbabwe will also
renew its relationship with
Hahn Air and will outsource
ticketing in the SA market to
Holiday Aviation. “Flyafrica
Zimbabwe has informed us
that it will retain our ongoing
services as a ticketing
agent for the airline as well
as excess baggage fee
collections from our offices in
Randburg and ORTIA once the
airline resumes flights,” says
sales and marketing director
of Holiday Aviation, Matthew
Simpson.
Meanwhile, it seems unlikely
that Flyafrica Namibia will
resume operations in its
original form. Frank Stein,
director and shareholder
for Nomad Aviation, which
provided the licensing and
ground operations for Flyafrica
Namibia, says there are no
plans from Nomad Aviation’s
side to resuscitate Flyafrica
Namibia’s operations. He
says Nomad Aviation had
a franchise agreement with
Flyafrica Ltd through which
the Mauritius-based company
provided the Flyafrica brand
name and expertise. However,
Frank explains that Flyafrica
Ltd never honoured its side
of the agreement and Nomad
Aviation has been left with the
resulting costs
