As the months tick by with SAA and SA Express (SAX) out of service, it is becoming progressively more difficult to restart the airlines due to the administrative requirements to reapply for the various licences needed to operate scheduled flights.
In SAX’s case, its Air Operator Certificate (AOC), Aircraft Maintenance Organisation (AMO) approval and Aviation Training Organisation approval have already expired. The clock is now also ticking on a countdown toward expiry of its Air Services Licence, and this is causing competitors to vie for the airline’s routes.
Spokesperson for SACAA, Kabelo Ledwaba, confirmed to Travel News that SAX’s AOC expired on July 31, its AMO on June 30 and its Aviation Training Organisation approval on December 5.
Kabelo said the SACAA had not suspended an approval that had been issued to SAX, but it was rather a case of the airline’s approvals expiring and not having been re-issued. “SAX has submitted an application for the renewal of its AOC, however this application process remains on hold as a result of the airline’s unfolding business rescue process. The airline has not applied for renewal of its AMO approval,” said Kabelo.
According to Section 19 of the Air Services Licensing Act, an Air Services License is issued based on a number of conditions, including one that states that air services should not be interrupted for a period exceeding 12 months.
SAX went into business rescue in February and then suspended flights on March 18, shortly before hard lockdown was announced. The airline was later placed under provisional liquidation by the High Court on April 28. Fly SAX, an SPV set up by SA Express employees to save their jobs, later won the bid to buy the airline in September, stating that it hoped to take to the skies again early in 2021.
According to a Moneyweb report, aviation company Fly Modern Ark (one of the bidders that lost the bid to buy SAX) recently sent a letter to the Domestic Air Services Licensing Council saying that SAX’s licences should be cancelled with immediate effect and its routes given to other domestic airlines, as SAX had not been operational for most of the year.
“SA Express is financially not in a position to operate any time soon. It is no longer an airline and therefore should not hold licences,” the letter quoted in the Moneyweb report was alleged to have said