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Nationwide: 6 000 stranded
30/11/2007 13:43 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Airline rivals raced to put on extra flights on Friday to accommodate Nationwide passengers left stranded after the SA Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) grounded the airline from midnight on Thursday.
Comair said it was accommodating stranded passengers "wherever operationally possible".
They would be accommodated "on a standby basis", subject to availability, on British Airways and kulula.com flights "as long as they have had their air tickets endorsed by Nationwide", said spokeswoman Glenda Zvenyika.
The onus was on customers and travel agents to ensure the endorsement was done.
Nationwide said 6 000 passengers were affected on Friday alone.
It had to cancel 60 flights including one to London on Friday night and two to Livingstone, in Zambia, said the airline's sales and marketing manager Charmaine Thome.
Also cancelled were the airline's domestic flights to and from Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, George, Mpumalanga and Johannesburg, she said.
Thome said British Airways and kulula.com were the only airlines "accepting Nationwide paper", or prepared to recognise the tickets of Nationwide passengers.
SAA said that while it was putting on extra flights as a result of the Nationwide grounding, stranded passengers would have to pay for seats on board these planes.
Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) spokesperson Solomon Makgale said long queues of Nationwide passengers from this morning were "clearing up".
He said Acsa had staff on the floor at OR Tambo International Airport, in Kempton Park, explaining what had happened to Nationwide passengers as they arrived for their flights.
They were being directed to the Nationwide reservations desk where Nationwide staff were informing them of their options.
This was not having any effect on the passengers of other airlines, said Makgale.
Thome said Nationwide was offering full refunds to passengers unable to get alternative transport. It was also offering to change their tickets for flights on later dates.
"With the advent of school holidays and the festive season, our flights are already operating at high load factors and we will try and assist these displaced customers wherever possible," said Comair spokesperson Stuart Cochrane.
"We are in the process of assessing the operational logistics of scheduling additional flights later this afternoon and into the weekend," he said.
He advised people to book flights through Comair's call centre rather than to simply arrive at the airport and face disappointment. They would then be required to seek a refund directly from Nationwide.
The British Airways' call centre is on 0860 I FLY BA (435922); and kulula.com may be found on 0861 KULULA (58582).
Bookings can also be made on www.ba.com, www.kulula.com or via a travel agent.
Details of the additional SAA flights were not immediately available.
The CAA grounded Nationwide from midnight on Thursday over concerns about the maintenance of the 16 aircraft in its fleet - 12 Boeing 737-200s, three Boeing 727s and one Boeing 767.
Nationwide has indicated that it intends appealing against the decision.
- SAPA
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