Kulula and British Airways back in the air — details on flight credit and rebookings

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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Kulula and British Airways back in the air — details on flight credit and rebookings

Kulula and British Airways are resuming flights on Thursday after the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) reinstated Comair's Air Operator's Certificate.

SACAA suspended Comair's certificate on Saturday, 12 March 2022, resulting in the grounding of all Kulula and British Airways flights for five days.

The authority said that the airlines' experienced concerning occurrences ranging from engine failures, engine malfunction, and landing gear malfunctions in the past month.
 
I lost 2 tickets to Cape Town last year due to their stupid refund process, after all the maracas with Covid restrictions and their business rescue process.

Good luck to the passengers that are about to attempt the refund/credit process..
 
so suddenly as quickly as they were grounded, they got un-grounded
and still no reasoning behind this crazy and sudden change, just cause we can.

probably a bribe wasn't paid on time, like in Cemair case.
that also got grounded and un-grounded almost as fast.
 
D said:
Mechanics suddenly deliver quality workmanship if they realise they are about to lose their livelihood? ; )
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Im actually waiting for one of the Media houses to actually tell us the real reason behind all of this,
Carte blanche could talk about it for years, even MYBB could make a name for themselves revealing what it was really all about.

what if it was during a busy season? IE Christmas or Easter, suddenly the airline stops flying, cause its fun?
people book seats months in advance, and suddenly they told whoops we cant fly, take the bus, Homie.

I mean imagine this has to happen in the USA, Southwest/Delta/United just closing operations because the FAA decided its fun.
no reasoning, no deadline, no alternative arrangements, no re-booking, just bang, your grounded.

absolute chaos would ensure, remember the Chaos that happened after 9/11 when all flights were grounded
 
The fact that they could get in the air in a matter of days proves this wasn't a serious safety issue and only some minor paperwork deficiency. You can't suddenly maintain and inspect all your aircraft to code in 5 days.
 
Gaz{M} said:
The fact that they could get in the air in a matter of days proves this wasn't a serious safety issue and only some minor paperwork deficiency. You can't suddenly maintain and inspect all your aircraft to code in 5 days.
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well most werent broken
 
Gaz{M} said:
The fact that they could get in the air in a matter of days proves this wasn't a serious safety issue and only some minor paperwork deficiency. You can't suddenly maintain and inspect all your aircraft to code in 5 days.
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hence I say the bribe to the CAA didn't go through, and they missed a payment of the ministerial Idiotmobile or something.
 
Still no word on how 3 incidents of engine failure and one of landing gear malfunction happened? Comair are either super unlucky or something is fishy and is being brushed under some carpet.
 
eg2505 said:
Im actually waiting for one of the Media houses to actually tell us the real reason behind all of this,
Carte blanche could talk about it for years, even MYBB could make a name for themselves revealing what it was really all about.

what if it was during a busy season? IE Christmas or Easter, suddenly the airline stops flying, cause its fun?
people book seats months in advance, and suddenly they told whoops we cant fly, take the bus, Homie.

I mean imagine this has to happen in the USA, Southwest/Delta/United just closing operations because the FAA decided its fun.
no reasoning, no deadline, no alternative arrangements, no re-booking, just bang, your grounded.

absolute chaos would ensure, remember the Chaos that happened after 9/11 when all flights were grounded
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Hey numbnuts... Are you seriously going to liken this to 9/11...
 
eg2505 said:
Im actually waiting for one of the Media houses to actually tell us the real reason behind all of this,
Carte blanche could talk about it for years, even MYBB could make a name for themselves revealing what it was really all about.

what if it was during a busy season? IE Christmas or Easter, suddenly the airline stops flying, cause its fun?
people book seats months in advance, and suddenly they told whoops we cant fly, take the bus, Homie.

I mean imagine this has to happen in the USA, Southwest/Delta/United just closing operations because the FAA decided its fun.
no reasoning, no deadline, no alternative arrangements, no re-booking, just bang, your grounded.

absolute chaos would ensure, remember the Chaos that happened after 9/11 when all flights were grounded
Click to expand...
There is actually no need to investigate anything, the reasons are well documented, even Kulula admitted to them - there were serious safety incidents that led to the grounding, read up... Stop the hysteria
 
Kawak said:
Still no word on how 3 incidents of engine failure and one of landing gear malfunction happened? Comair are either super unlucky or something is fishy and is being brushed under some carpet.
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Which is even more concerning. You can't clear that up in a few days. So either that wasn't the concern and the grounding was for different reasons or the safety issues aren't resolved. Either way won't use them after the treatment customers received. You don't close your counters when passengers are left stranded with nowhere to go.
 
wireddreams said:
There is actually no need to investigate anything, the reasons are well documented, even Kulula admitted to them - there were serious safety incidents that led to the grounding, read up... Stop the hysteria
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well documented , sure just like cemair that had similar issues a while back with the CAA just grounding them mysteriously.

www.timeslive.co.za

CemAir's planes to remain grounded after failed court bid against authority

The high court in Johannesburg has dismissed CemAir’s urgent application to overturn the South African Civil Aviation Authority’s decision earlier this month to stop its planes from taking off.
www.timeslive.co.za www.timeslive.co.za
 
Swa said:
Which is even more concerning. You can't clear that up in a few days. So either that wasn't the concern and the grounding was for different reasons or the safety issues aren't resolved. Either way won't use them after the treatment customers received. You don't close your counters when passengers are left stranded with nowhere to go.
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As you said, the safety issues cannot be resolved this quickly, those engine failure did happen, it doesn't help that all we get are just cryptic messages. From both Comair and CAA, I have already canceled my booking with them, I'm just going to wait and see before using them again.

Closing counters is just dumb, did you get a full refund?
 
I'd rather fly with Kulula than SAA. Actually any other airline than SAA.

...and to be honest, the timing of this saga makes very little sense. It feels like it was designed to push business elsewhere. Details are too limited to make me think that there are real and/or worrying issues in the airline of BAA & Kulula.
 
Kawak said:
As you said, the safety issues cannot be resolved this quickly, those engine failure did happen, it doesn't help that all we get are just cryptic messages. From both Comair and CAA, I have already canceled my booking with them, I'm just going to wait and see before using them again.

Closing counters is just dumb, did you get a full refund?
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Engine failures happen, it could have simply been bad luck that they had two in a short space of time. Same with the landing gear or loss of separation incidents. None of these necessarily point to poor maintenance, which Comair doesn't perform themselves anyway.

What most likely happened was that the documentation about these incidents was not up to standard. Improper/insufficient cause analysis, remediation etc.
 
Ϲhristopher said:
Engine failures happen, it could have simply been bad luck that they had two in a short space of time. Same with the landing gear or loss of separation incidents. None of these necessarily point to poor maintenance, which Comair doesn't perform themselves anyway.

What most likely happened was that the documentation about these incidents was not up to standard. Improper/insufficient cause analysis, remediation etc.
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Does it actually happen so frequently? To me, it feels like, the CAA cares more about procedure and process and less about the actual incidents. As a frequent flyer (pre covid), this feels strange and almost as if the authorities are helping the airlines get out of their slump.

Of the multitude of flights I used to take yearly, I have never encountered anything to do with engine or landing gear, am I lucky?
 
Kawak said:
As you said, the safety issues cannot be resolved this quickly, those engine failure did happen, it doesn't help that all we get are just cryptic messages. From both Comair and CAA, I have already canceled my booking with them, I'm just going to wait and see before using them again.

Closing counters is just dumb, did you get a full refund?
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They happened but were they really seen as a concern or just used as a scapegoat? If they were really new then maintenance and procedure can't be blamed so either it's a documentation issue and not really a safety one or something else went on which we will never know about.

I wasn't a customer but the poor customer service would also convince me not to consider being one.
 
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