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SA airlines all 'fully booked'
03/12/2007 13:04 - (SA)
Verashni Pillay
Cape Town - Frustrated customers from grounded airline, Nationwide, queued for hours on Monday, waiting for flights to become available on other airlines.
"It's chaotic," complained Thobile Ntaka, 23, who had a Nationwide ticket booked from Cape Town to Johannesburg for 13:40 on Monday. "There's lots of people and everyone is on standby."
Nationwide was grounded on Friday after the CAA suspended its approval of the airline's aircraft maintenance organisation and the certificates of airworthiness of Nationwide's fleet of 16 aircraft.
'What do you want me to say?'
"Phone me beforehand and tell me what's going to happen," Ntaka said of the airline.
"Don't tell me: 'We've already apologised to the whole world, what do you want me to say?'" she said, describing her interaction with a Nationwide staff member.
Ntaka, a customer services advisor from Johannesburg, had booked her flight the previous week to visit friends in Cape Town.
Her flight to Cape Town on 1time had passed without incident. But on Saturday she read about Nationwide's grounding in the newspapers.
"No one called me," she said.
Ntaka assumed that Nationwide would take care of their customers. "I just thought that they were going to make a plan," she said. She searched for alternative tickets online on Sunday but could not book a flight without first getting the refund Nationwide promised on their website.
Pointless
Her arrival at the airport at 07:00 on Monday to get her refund and find another flight proved pointless. Ntaka was told she would have to wait 28 days for her refund. "They told me that I just have to buy another ticket and cough up more money - I don't know from where."
She was still waiting on standby at 10:00 on Monday.
Comair Limited initially offered to accommodate stranded Nationwide customers subject to availability on both British Airways and kulula.com flights, as long as they had their air tickets endorsed by Nationwide.
The offer was later withdrawn after Nationwide's tickets were declared invalid by the International Air Transport Association.
Nationwide customers on Monday were waiting on standby for seats on other flights. "There are people who were here yesterday and they're still here today," said Ntaka.
"They're saying there are no tickets. SAA is full, everyone is full and everyone is in the same situation."
Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) spokesperson, Solomon Makgale, maintained that the situation at Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg was under control, and that the same was true for the rest of the country.
"The situation has improved since Friday," said Makgale "A lot of people are now aware of the Nationwide situation and are making alternative arrangements."
9.5 million people
Makgale said it was a busy time of year, with 9.5 million people expected to travel between November and January.
"There are not huge quantities of seats available but there are some seats and if the flights are full they put them on a waiting list and put them on the next flight," he said of Nationwide customers.
Cape Town International Airport, where Ntaka was waiting, was not available for comment on Monday morning.
- News24
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