Pretoria – The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) said it will be picketing outside the offices of Comair to demand the removal of its CEO Glenn Orsmondand and the Business Rescue Practitioner (BRP), Richard Ferguson from Redford Capital.
This comes after Comair announced that all British Airways and Kulula flights would be suspended from June 1, 2022, until further notice, as its Business Rescue Practitioners (BRP) tried to raise capital following cash flow problems.
Numsa said BRP were appointed in May 2020 and the business rescue plan was approved in October the same year.
“But they are failing. Under their poor leadership the airline has had to deal with one crisis after another and their mismanagement has brought the airline to the point where its operations have been suspended,” said Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.
On Tuesday Comair announced that it was grounding all flights due to lack of funding.
“Comair regrets to advise its flights have been voluntarily suspended from June 1, 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 already bought flights and felt it was an inconvenience.
Aviation analyst Phuthego Mojapele said Comair was acting in bad faith.
“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 faith here because they left customers stranded,” said Mojapelo.
He questioned how Comair announced immediate suspension when there were imminent signals.
In March, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula was advised of the decision taken by the SA Civil Aviation Authority to suspend Comair’s air operator certificate as a precautionary measure.
IOL