The Competition Commission announced that it is meeting with the leadership of the competing airlines to engage them on the implications of Comair’s decision to suspend British Airways and Kulula flights yesterday.
Comair announced that it was grounding all flights due to lack of funding.
“Comair regrets to advise its flights have been voluntarily suspended from 1 June pending securing funding. If your flight has been cancelled, please don't travel to the airport unless you have alternative arrangements. Our apologies for the inconvenience,” said Comair in a social media platform,Twitter.
This move by Comair was largely criticised by customers who had already bought flights and felt this was an inconvenience.
Affected customer Lindy Ann took to Twitter and wrote: “Yet two days ago you were happy to take money for flights departing today? Where do we apply to get our refund?”
Kulula replied “Hi Lindy Ann, we understand you are frustrated. Customers booked with Kulula can email MNContactCentre@comair.co.za for a request for a full refund or Travel Bank credit. We are truly sorry for the inconvenience caused”.
Anele Hlomuka lambasted the airline for cheap tactics amid what Kulula advertised what they called “Kulula Winter Warmer 30% Sale for travel between 31 May 2022 and 30 November 2022 for online booking.”
“So was this some sort of fund-raising exercise? It’s unethical that even as you knew that you were struggling you announced this special only a day before your original announcement,” said Hlomuka.
Aviation analyst Phuthego Mojapele said Comair was acting in a bad fate.
“It was quite evident that Comair’s problems have degenerated badly and I think their communication was a bit bad. They also did not learn from the past when they were grounded by sending a signal. Surely if you know you are not going to have money for the next month at least you should sensitise your valuable customers if you really value their business. They should have done better and I think that they were acting in bad fate here because they left customers stranded,” said Mojapelo.
He questioned how Comair announced immediate suspension when there were imminent signals.
Regarding the sale, Mojapelo said Comair’s communication was poor.
“When you run a special it should be coming from your people from finance and other marketing people but at the same time the board of Comair and executives they knew very well, I mean they are sitting in these meetings every single day and they knew very well that things are not going to be rosey for them going forward and I just don’t believe that it would have been something that was not planned. They did it intentionally to confuse the whole thing. It cannot be something that happened overnight and they take a decision based on that,” he said.
In March, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula was advised of the decision taken by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) to suspend the air operator certificate of Comair as a precautionary measure.
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