Nationwide says 'sorry'
03/12/2007 08:10  - (SA)  

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Cape Town - Vernon Bricknell, the executive chief of Nationwide Airlines, apologised to about 9 000 passengers who suffered discomfort after the airline was grounded on Friday.

He was confident that all flights would return to normal before Christmas. This followed after the Civil Aviation Authority found that the airline did not comply with safety rules during a routine maintenance check.

A second investigation followed to allow Nationwide to resolve problems in co-operation with the CAA.

CAA spokesperson Phindiwe Gwebu said Nationwide was allowed a period of time to improve, but failed to do so and as a result the airline was grounded.

Awaiting decision

"Nationwide appealed on Friday and Gawie Bestbier, the acting commissioner of CAA, is revising the decision."

Gwebu said anything was possible. "Nationwide might be told to continue or to stop operations. The decision might be made known on Monday."

Bricknell said Nationwide had to cancel 90 flights from Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth, George, Mpumalanga, Livingstone and London-Gatwick. "I want to apologise on behalf of Nationwide to our clients and other passengers who were discomforted on Friday, the first day of the busy summer season."

He said the management team and staff were trying to resolve the crisis in order for normal flight schedules to resume. Bricknell said passengers would have a choice of re-booking their flights or getting their money back.

Rosemary Olivier, 46, who was on her way to Port Elizabeth on Friday, said she asked for her money back, but she would only receive it in eight weeks' time.

"I paid R439 for a single ticket on Nationwide and then had to pay R1 400 for a flight on 1-Time, but I'm here and I was fortunate to get a flight. It was chaos on Friday."

Solomon Makgale, spokesperson for the Airports Company of South Africa, said there were fewer people waiting at the airports.

The airline hoped to get its flights to London back in operation on Sunday night.

However, Gwebu confirmed on Sunday night that a KLM aircraft Nationwide would have used for the London flight was refused by the CAA due to "serious safety concerns".

Sapa meanwhile reported that Nationwide would not be flying on Monday, airline spokesperson Charmaine Thome said.

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