While there seems to be some talk of ACSA - found this on the front page of today's Business Day.
1time to sue Acsa over runway pothole
Carli Lourens
Business Day 25 August 2006
ONE of at least four private airlines becoming increasingly frustrated by Airports Company SA’s (Acsa’s) alleged poor service intends to sue it for losses amounting to R900000.
Low-fare airline 1time said yesterday that it had tried unsuccessfully to recoup losses from Acsa after a hole that had developed in a Cape Town International Airport runway forced flights to be diverted in December last year.
1time marketing director Rodney James said the airline’s initial nonlegal attempts came to nothing as Acsa ignored them.
Another private airline, Nationwide, said it had kept records of the losses it had suffered as a result of the incident at the Cape Town airport.
Nationwide finance director Peter Griffiths said, however, that the group had not taken action as it did not have much hope of recovering its losses.
“Acsa tramples roughshod over its customers,” said Griffiths.
Comair, which operates British Airways and kulula.com, said it was also concerned about the Cape Town incident and had suffered damages as a result of it.
However, Comair would attempt to get a service-level agreement in place with Acsa, instead of trying to recover its losses from the company.
“It’s not only the runway incident — there are 50 to 100 areas where we require service levels to be met, such as in security and parking,” Comair joint CE Gidon Novick said yesterday.
He said a service-level agreement should include imposing punitive measures if airport service standards were not met.
James said the Cape Town incident could have been avoided. He said runways were required to be inspected several times a day.
He said the airline was also frustrated by continual upgrades to airports in SA. James said it was impossible for 1Time to get flights to depart on time during peak holiday periods.
Acsa did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.
Increasing customer unhappiness flies in the face of Acsa’s rising fortunes — its operating profit climbed 30% in the year to March and cash flow jumped 39%