Cape Town - Comair says it can assure its passengers that it is business as usual as the airline has secured an interdict against the ASLC from potentially revoking its license.

The interdict is in place until a hearing, set down for Tuesday 17 May, thereafter Comair will have the opportunity to take the decision of the ASLC regarding Comair’s shareholding on review.



At a meeting held by the Air Services Licensing Council (ASLC) at the Department of Transport in Pretoria on Wednesday, the ASLC indicated to Comair that they could not provide clarity on their intentions and were undecided on whether or not to suspend Comair’s Domestic Air Services License.

Erik Venter, Comair’s CEO says “We have resorted to these extra-ordinary and urgent measures to ensure we are able to secure operational certainty for the many thousands of travellers being held to ransom over the potential disruption to their important travel plans. We are pleased that this result will place the burden of decision into a court of law where Comair will be afforded a fair opportunity to make representation as to why we are confident in our compliance with the Act.”

“We would like to once again to express our deepest gratitude to our customers for their unwavering support and all the goodwill and wishes they have sent us as we navigate through this frustrating and challenging issue.” says Venter.

The current dispute between Comair and the Air Services Licensing Council (ASLC) originated as a complaint lodged by Flysafair with the ASLC questioning Comair’s level of foreign ownership. The Air Services Licensing Act stipulates that no more than 25% of the voting rights in a domestic airline may be held by foreigners, and Comair is confident that it complies with this limit.



“It is important to note that whilst FlySafair has subsequently stated that it has no interest pursuing its complaint, the ASLC is still not satisfied that Comair is compliant with the Air Services Licensing Act, which is something we certainly do not agree with” says Venter.