Nationwide

[FuelFlow]

Does anyone know what`s going on at Nationwide. I believe they have lost a couple of Captains from the 737 fleet over the last few months, and no sign of any upgrades or direct entries to replace these guys. I heard yesterday that they will operate until March 2001 and then close the doors. I think March is when Sabena is pulling out of S.A.
Any info chaps?

[Banoi]

This is disturbing news boet! Hope it all turns out to be just an evil rumour.

[WildFrequency]

Yeah, I have also heard "nasty" rumours about Nationwides possible closure. What is happening there at the moment? The last thing SA Aviation needs is another "defunked" airline.

[Goldfish Jack]

Rumours, rumours.

If we were to believe all the rumours that originate, SAA would have gotten rid of their CEO, Comair would have shut down, ACSA would have sold their airports, ATNS would have no controllers, etc etc. (Latest rumour heard today is that the government is going to stop all international flights to try and conrol the foot and mouth disease!!!)

Lets hope this is a viscious rumour started by one of their opposition hell bent on getting rid of them (again).

They are still taking bookings for next year. IF you look at their aircraft, they are in partnership with VIRGIN and also TAP. Virgin have just increased their flights into RSA and rumour (!!!! HA HA) has it that TAP want to increase their flights, so do they really need SABENA?????????????

Go on Nationwide give it horns and show the opposition what you are made of...

[WildFrequency]

GoldFish Jack,

Good to hear a positive comment. After writing my piece on this thread I heard via a friend that when a Nationwide engineer had been asked about the possible closure of Nationwide, he replied it was the first he had heard of it! What is more worrying is the rumour that the CEO of a very large SA Airline had said that there will be no more domestic competition in the next year or so, the easiest way to close an airline down is to employ their crew, it appears a fair number of NW crew have been to interviews with this airline, do not know how many have been succesful though!!! As a matter of interest how often does Sabena fly to SA, I certainly think it is less than Virgin and TAP.

[skyvan]

Well, the CEO may have said that, personnally, I think nothing could be worse than no competition, especially in such a small pond.
It was Flitestar which improved the level of catering on the national carrier (although judging by what I've had slung in front of me recently, the memory is a bit short :) )
The competition by Comair caused a revamp of the definition of 'on-time' (same day was no longer good enough!!)
As to a number of NW pilots being interviewed, that is probably more a result of the very good attitudes and performance displayed by the most recent new-hires from NW, rather than any desire to cripple Vernon's operation.
Of course, rumours of the demise of Nationwide do the rounds every few months. They probably are hurting a bit with the fuel price, but their gasguzzlers are paid for, and no lease payments buy a lot of Jet A1.
I think we'll be seeing the blue tails around for a while to come still.

[Intheslot]

Well I would just like to add that is really refreshing to hear so many positive comments about the airline. A lot of people seem to have a lot to say about N/W without knowing the facts and that just adds to the confusion anyway. Lets remember one thing- we all have mouths to feed and bills to make good. No matter what we thnk of other airlines there our other peoples livelihoods at stake and an airline closing is always a sad thing for the flying community. We may not all be happy in our jobs ,and we may all moan and wine at times(pilots are good at that)but the bottom line is that we love this game, thats why we fly. I hope that the rumours are not true and that the holiday season will help ease the financial strain on the guys that are going up against government backed money. Thats probably were the rumours started anyway ala Sunair