Cape Town - British Airways was voted the best full-service airline flying from Cape Town International Airport by passengers using it in the first 11 months of this year, and Mango the best low-cost carrier. SA Express was voted the best regional carrier, Singapore Airlines the best international airline and Swissport International the best ground handler.
These votes were collected to judge the winners of the airport’s annual Feather Awards, presented this month, and are based on questionnaires aimed at checking which airlines and other service providers consistently perform well in areas ranging from helpful staff to delivering baggage on time.
Wimpy was judged the best food and beverage provider landside and airside and also received a special award from airport general manager Deon Cloete.
Hopes that low-cost airline 1time, which had many regular passengers, would be back in the air in time for Christmas will not be realised, although I gather we can expect to see it back quite early in the new year. The airline was forced to apply for provisional liquidation when hopes faded of trading out of difficulties due mainly to the soaring price of aviation fuel, combined with high airport costs.
Provisional liquidator Aviwe Nyamara said on Tuesday that he had recommended the date for final liquidation this week should be put back until February, pending the result of negotiations by London-based low-cost airline Fastjet to take it over.
He was optimistic that Fastjet would succeed in negotiations with 1time’s creditors and meet other conditions.
If 1time returns, it will meet aggressive competition from Mango, which has plans to expand outside this country as well as within it, while the founding members of 1time, who sold their shareholdings earlier this year, and are joined by Johan Borstlap, the former chief executive of the original Sun Air, have applied for a licence to start a new airline, Skywise. They plan to start by flying between Cape Town and Joburg, expanding later.
Comair has announced plans to fly to Maputo again, a route from which both it and 1time withdrew last year. This was as a result of high taxes, and the limit on the number of passengers they were allowed to carry – in order to protect the market share of Mozambique’s national airline – made it uneconomic. Presumably this situation has changed to make it a more attractive proposition. - Sunday Argus