Nationwide back in business
2007-12-06 17:08
Verashni Pillay
Cape Town - The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has given grounded airline, Nationwide, permission for a flight to London, spokesperson Phindiwe Gwebu told News24 on Thursday.
The flight will leave from Johannesburg on Friday night.
"The aircraft was maintained and the SACAA conducted an inspection on it," said Gwebu.
SACAA and Nationwide said in a joint statement on Wednesday that they had concluded a framework of compliance.
Nationwide would contract out the heavy maintenance of its aircraft fleet to the SACAA-approved company Safair.
"Safair has now been approved to conduct all of the maintenance on Nationwide's fleet and as soon as they finish an aircraft and it is inspected by us, we will basically release it to fly," said Gwebu.
Gwebu said the SACAA would conduct the same process with Nationwide's entire fleet, in the hope of releasing all 16 aircraft.
Nationwide spokesperson Charmaine Thome expressed hope on Wednesday that the airline would have a plane in the air on Friday.
Nationwide was grounded on 30 November 30 after the SACAA suspended its approval of the airline's aircraft maintenance organisation and the certificates of airworthiness of Nationwide's fleet.
- News24