Comair/BA/SAA/Mango

[Arq]

Johannesburg - South Africa must be the only country on Earth with three national airlines.
Comair, which operates the low-cost kulula.com airline, says this circumstance poses a threat to the airline industry.
"It's because of the intervention by the former Public Enterprises Minister, Alec Erwin, that we are today saddled with SA Express, SAA and Mango," says Comair joint chief executive Gidon Novick.
Novick explains that in difficult market conditions, such as those currently experienced, airlines struggle to make a living and the existence of state-controlled low-cost airlines such as Mango are unnecessary and a serious threat to the local industry.
"While other airlines (1time and kulula.com) are struggling, Mango can carry on ad infinitum - sponsored, of course, by the taxpayer."
Novick is seemingly elated that Erwin no longer holds the reins at the ministry.
While he has reason to smile about an oil price that has already fallen far from the highs it attained earlier this year, he says the weak rand/dollar exchange rate is concerning.
"The major countermeasure (in the difficult market environment) is to effect cost savings as far as possible. Lanseria airport and our operations there, for instance, have a hugely beneficial impact on the kulula.com cost base."
Comair is steaming ahead with plans for a Malawian airline.
British Airways (BA), a Comair shareholder, has indicated that it is more than prepared to support Comair's expansion plans for southern Africa. British Airways is a private company independent of the British government.

[I.R.PIRATE]

Ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two ..one....BASHING TIME:}:}

[boypilot]

Blah blah blah blah blah blah.....

[rogerk]

It's all part of the "rainbow image"
You can fly on a "Green One" on Monday an "Orange One" on Wednesday and a "White One" on Friday night !!
Wot are you whingin' about.
:D:D

[Ghost_Rider737]

Its easy for certain people to "bash" the national airline BUT who maintains comair's aircraft ? As the age old saying goes... DONT BITE the hand that feeds you

[Tin-Tin]

Jews in space....

[Setron]

:ok:Exactly, Ghost_Rider737, after all the people that have left SAA tech the question really is:
...who maintains comair's aircraft ? :E

[congoman]

The only reason Novick wants an end to SAA/SAX/Mango is so he can push his prices up! Take a look at Airlinks prices on sectors where there's no competition - they're sky high! Same would happen with Comair.
With the national carriers out of the picture, will Comair/BA/kalula (or whatever they want to call themselves) maintain their fares? I doubt it! Novick (like most businessmen) wants to get RID of the competition - not encourage it!
Careful what you wish for Mr Pax! One day you might just get it!

[CJ750]

WHO MAINTAINS SAA's AIRCRAFT:confused:

[springbok702]

maybe so, but it is the masters of this practice at SAA , whether the new regime or the old , who have set the standard of dirty tricks and getting rid of the oppositon in the aviaition industry. An airline who cannot make a profit and has to "borrow " 17 billion rand from the taxpayer is just a liability !

"Its easy for certain people to "bash" the national airline BUT who maintains comair's aircraft ? As the age old saying goes... DONT BITE the hand that feeds you" ....
the truth is the other way round, Comair is the one who is feeding SAA technical , without whom they would have to borrow even more money from the taxpayer to be able to stay afloat!!!

[Avi8tor]

Novick (like most businessmen) wants to get RID of the competitionI have a a feeling the entire point has been missed. All that most ppl are calling for is FAIR competition. Where tax payers ZAR's dont get involved.

As for who maintains Comair's aircraft, I guess Comair PAY SAA for the work?

[Shrike200]

Yeah, as Avi8 said, Comair PAYS SAAT, just like any other business deal...duh! Comments such as 'DONT BITE the hand that feeds you' implies that SAAT somehow does the work out of kindness and love. NOT.

[TwinJock]

....says Comair joint chief executive Gidon Novick.


If Gideon Novick opens his mouth, add about a ton of salt to it and then ignore it. bla bla bla!!

[Der absolute Hammer]

But was not SAA flights with HS 748 doing all regionals in SA before Comair got into serious regional excercise. Was not Comair only flying to out stations using DC3s.
If so-then you cannot complain if competition was there already when you started to expansion your route structure?

[Setron]

Wtf...???
Dah, I think you are starting to hit the hammer with the nail dud!!!

[Shrike200]

Competition = good. State sponsored competition = bad. I think that was part of the original point.

[boypilot]

:ugh::ugh:

[Der absolute Hammer]

Thank you Shrike200. Makes it into some perspective.
boypilot..that was a stupid post.

[ERASER]

It’s just so strange that Mr. “Hypocrite” Novick’s bleeding heart for the SA tax payer suddenly goes quiet when it’s more profitable to have SAA Technical, “the state sponsored evil one”, keep his a/c in the air. He knows his profits will be gone if he had to go somewhere else or start his own AMO. It’s nice to expand knowing the “evil one” will ensure were ever you shut down your engines, there will be an “evil one’s” staff member ensuring you may start up again under the “cheap” maintenance contract you negotiated. Yes he pays for it but it’s so cheap he signed for five (5) years at a time, ensuring the “evil one” has his back on the operation side. His whining reminds me of the old government and Apartheid……Africa united against SA with sanctions and publicly cutting all ties, blah blah blah………but late at night “ghost” freighter a/c will land at JHB, no makings, registrations removed loading food…….If SAA privatize (lets pray), and still operating as normal??? and some airline goes down, who will they blame then?Go back to the Nationwide threads, blaming VB for everything that’s going wrong, but when it went down, SAA was blamed………what really caused the failure was shoddy maintenance and VB………read the thread about 1time and the unions vs the “smiling assassin”……the comments…”its the beginning of the end”……when they fail…who will be blamed?……SAA…….I’m not saying SAA is right but let’s keep some perspective……just be careful what you wish for…..you might just get it!!!!!

[Heritage 1]

Erazer you are way off base and obviously are bitter and twisted towards Comair. The truth is, Comair signed a 5 year deal with SAAT because it was the only option open to them to keep the aircraft maintained after Safair asked to be released from their contract. It was a measure to safeguard the airline and I can assure you it was not cheap. It gave Comair breathing space to look at other options, including setting up their own AMO.

Yes the Novicks are not angels but they DO know how to run a profitable airline. Enough said.

[ERASER]

Heritage, I'm not bitter nor twisted towards Comair at all, fly with them alot, but I just detest, whiny @ss hypocrites....every time they get airtime on the TV, it SAA...SAA...SAA...blah blah blah.....but back at the ranch...business as usual...Comair setting up their own AMO, yes and SAA is a well run airline...........Lets just say it pays for Comair to be in bed with SAA.....lets not do the Sunair vs Safair/Comair/SAA saga again.... We all would like to see SAA go it alone, but whining about it will not make it happen any sooner.....

[Skywalkar]

Boys the bottom line is state interference in any industry is counterproductive to free enterprise.
That’s the reason 1st world countries ban governments from propping up state airlines.
If it wasn’t for Comair’s, 1-times, mine and your tax money, SAA would have gone t1ts up years ago.
I say cut them off, and we will see who is left standing.

[i-Robot]

That’s the reason 1st world countries ban governments....

It's mind-boggling how knowledgeable some of our colleagues are.

Skywalker could you at least share your insight on the "first" world's current plan to bail out their corrupt, greed-fueled, collapsing financial market....

I guess in some situations governments can justify their interference....huh?

[Skywalkar]

I-Robot my friend.

The world governments may be giving the banks a little cash (defiantly not the norm), but they still not giving the airlines anything.
Ask Swiss-Air.
In a free market you are either competitive enough to stand by yourself, or you close.
Its called Capitalism.

I simply don’t think that it is right that my company’s taxes (and mine for that matter), are used to prop up an incompetent airline that wages price wars and uses uncompetitive practices (refer to the competition boards rulings) which we then have to compete against.

How much was it this year for SAA anyway?
Something in the billions for SAA (again) and in the hundreds of millions for Mango?
Its throwing good money after bad.