A new South African airline, Air South Africa, plans to launch services between Johannesburg and London with a Boeing 747 during the third quarter of this year. Although Air SA's licence was approved by Pretoria's Air Services Licensing Council in 1997, the launch has been postponed twice after delays in finding investors.
The airline's chief executive is Laurie Hopkins, formerly an executive director of now-defunct international South African carrier Avia Air. Hopkins and local aviation entrepreneur Rod Meyer have sizeable stakes in the company, which plans three flights weekly between Johannesburg and London Gatwick Airport, via Malta.
Hopkins says that negotiations are under way for a 747. He is confident that the airline will be able to acquire another 747 and increase its frequencies to seven a week within six months of launch.
According to its licence application, the carrier has a board of eight directors, including three UK nationals. New talks on financing are under way following the breakdown of negotiations with a black-empowerment group which had originally been expected to invest.
Hopkins dismisses scepticism about the viability of yet another airline plying the London-Johannesburg route, already served by British Airways, South African Airways, Virgin Atlantic and charter carriers Britannia Airways and Caledonian Airways.
Unprecedented conditions have been imposed on the newcomers by the country's civil-aviation authority following the collapse in recent years of three South African carriers, including Avia, Flitestar, and Phoenix Airways. An amendment to aviation legislation enables the CAA to monitor Air SA's operations for its first 18 months, including scrutinising its management accounts, agreements on loan capital and the state of its insurance policies. The airline will also have to establish a multi-million-rand passenger-protection scheme to safeguard prepaid tickets.
Source: Flight International
