Civair steps up to the plate today
January 26, 2005
By Audrey D' Angelo
Cape Town - Andy Cluver, the chief executive of Civair, and Kobus Nell, a partner in Alliott Andersen Nell, will today explain to the Airlines Council why the airline, after twice postponing its take-off to London, had to announce it was unable to start its international service because of cash flow problems.
Thousands of people in South Africa and the UK had their Christmas holidays ruined when charter airline Civair failed in an attempt to enter the global market in December with flights to London-Stansted.
Most had received their money back, apart from bank commissions, according to auditors Alliott Andersen Nell, which held all fare payments in a trust.
Nell confirmed that Civair had never banked the fare money or profited from interest on it. Cluver said he had been let down by "a millionaire partner" who failed to provide promised funds to lease a Boeing 747 from European Airlines, a UK-based firm.
One indignant Briton, John Walker, provided a copy of an undated letter from the UK department of transport stating that it had never received a request for an operating permit from Civair.
Cluver said the only detail Civair could not provide to the UK authorities was the registration number of the aircraft it had leased.
He produced copies of correspondence discussing whether the aircraft would be on the South African register or remain on the European register.