S Africa’s Comair resumes flights after safety all-clear

Comair (South Africa) (MN, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has announced it will resume flights in the morning on March 17 after the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) reinstated its Air Operators’ Certificate (AOC) late on March 16.

A five-day suspension citing safety concerns by the regulator had yielded “no safety and security findings […] regarding either flight operations or maintenance,” but instead appeared to have been about procedural processes, Comair said in a statement. “The SACAA’s findings concerned the level of evidential support of some management systems and procedures relating to quality assurance processes, the structuring and personnel in the safety department, and documentation flow regarding repair confirmations.”

“We’re pleased that the situation is finally resolved, following an immense effort over five days and nights to engage and work with the SACAA. After a thorough review of Comair’s documentation, the SACAA has lifted the precautionary suspension of Comair’s license. Our focus is now to get our operations back to normal as quickly as possible so we can further assist our customers,” commented Chief Executive Officer Glenn Orsmond.

British Airways (operated by Comair) and Kulula Air schedules would be restored in a phased manner, the company said.

The SACAA in a separate statement confirmed it had lifted the suspension of the AOC which was imposed on March 12, 2022, after it had started auditing the airline on March 7, 2022.

“The cooperation and commitment of the operator during this period signalled the seriousness in which the operator took this matter and the openness displayed in the days leading up to this day. It is this collaboration that ensures that civil aviation safety remains a top priority in South Africa,” the regulator said.

The SACAA said its audit followed “a spate of occurrences which posed safety risks by kulula.com and BA/Comair airlines. The regulator sought to confirm Comair’s compliance with applicable Civil Aviation Regulations (CARs). The inspection was also aimed at reviewing Comair’s safety management systems (SMS) and quality control management system (QA) to establish compliance related to the reporting, analysis, and follow-up on occurrences, and corrective action plans to prevent recurrence,” it said.

The authority confirmed it had concluded its assessment and evaluation of Comair’s evidence to close “the Level One findings raised during the audit which started on March 7, 2022. The evaluation of the evidence was concluded on the evening of March 16, 2022. The impact of this outcome paves the way for the Director of Civil Aviation to uplift the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) of Comair with immediate effect”.

During the suspension, Comair was forced to charter wide-bodied aircraft – including an A340-300 from South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) – and had to accommodate passengers on other airlines. Still, with Comair operating 40% of the capacity in the market, there were not enough seats for everyone affected.

“The past four days have demonstrated the implications of having so much capacity removed from the market at such short notice. Having Comair’s operational capability restored is good news for our customers, our employees, the flying public, and the sector,” Orsmond concluded.

Comair’s competitors rallied to add capacity to assist stranded passengers – at incrementally higher fares as the last seats filled up.

“This weekend’s groundings meant that almost four in every 10 passengers due to travel were left stranded,” commented FlySafair Chief Marketing Officer Kirby Gordon. The budget carrier added 10 additional flights, while SAA added at least four additional rotations between Johannesburg O.R. Tambo and Cape Town.