Airlines scramble after planes are grounded for compliance checks

Local airlines scrambled to accommodate and pacify angry passengers on Tuesday after flights were affected by irregularities involving maintenance supplier South African Airways Technical.

South African Airways, Comair (i.e. Kulula), Mango and British Airways flights were among those affected.

The South African Civil Aviation Authority issued a notice to the airlines that prevented some of its planes from being flown.

Comair rushed to assure passengers that their planes were safe, saying that “the safety and security of our customers and personnel is our foremost priority and is never compromised.”

It explained that the Civil Aviation Authority issued the notice related to irregular findings picked up during a recent audit of the maintenance and technical service.

Affected aircraft could not be flown until the necessary corrective action had been carried out.

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“We do apologise to our customers for any inconvenience to their travel plans and appreciate their support. We are working closely with [South African Airways Technical] to rectify the findings and getting our flights back on schedule as soon as possible.”

South Africa’s cash-strapped national airline SAA also had to operate an amended flight schedule. Some of the flights operated later than usual and four flights were cancelled, but the airline had combined flights and deployed bigger aircraft to accommodate affected passengers, it said.

Meanwhile, the airlines’ social media teams were hard at work trying to reassure customers that other flights would not be affected.

“Kindly note that we are not aware of any disruptions of flights for the rest of the week, should there be any changes, posts will be on the social media platforms,” Kulula tweeted.

But some passengers were less forgiving.

StuartG tweeted: “Umm, you’ve had all night to do something about it, but your passengers received the announcement 10 minutes before boarding, and the planes are getting pushed back now. So we have a surprise indefinite delay, gosh thanks.”

Kulula said that its teams had worked throughout the night to get through the corrective actions and to activate mitigation plans.

Comair, meanwhile, said that it was in the process of transitioning its fleet from South African Airways Technical to Lufthansa Technik Maintenance International.

“All the aircraft that have recently joined our fleet are also already maintained by Lufthansa Technik Maintenance International,” tweeted Kulula in response to a question on Twitter.

One Mango follower on Facebook asked why the airlines “waited for audits to find faults”.

“Do you not check your aircrafts on a regular basis. This is highly irresponsible and definitely not putting your passengers safety first,” asked Marshall Naidu.

Mango Airlines was quick to assure Naidu that safety was its priority and its aircrafts were checked daily.

Another customer, Yolanda Grobler, replied: “Mango, it’s fine. I will rather wait a bit for a safe aircraft than rushing things and have people complaining about that. At least we can see the safety of passengers are you first concern, thank you. We will fly again in December.”

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