Wednesday, December 05, 2007

grounded


This is an emblem that is seen daily in the South African skies....Until last week, that is. It is the logo of Nationwide Airlines, one of the new budget airlines that have proliferated here recently as competiton to SAA. But it seems that cutting costs involves cutting corners...

A couple of weeks ago, in a scary incident, in which thankfully no-one was hurt, an engine literally dropped off one of their planes as it took off from Capetown International Airport!! They have repeatedly failed to supply the Civil Aviation Authority with satisfactory answers to questions about their aircraft maintenance, and finally the CAA grounded their entire fleet.

You can imagine the chaos for their poor passengers, whose flights were cancelled with no notice. At this time of the year, with all flights bulging at the seams, it has been impossible to find alternative connecting flights. Toadd insult to injury, today it was announced that refunds will only be processed in 6 weeks time!!

On the pilot's chat site PPrune, there was the usual wild speculation and conspiracy theories, but the conscensus, with which I tend to agree, is that things must have been seriously bad for the CAA to take such drastic action, and stick to their guns despite frantic lobbying and appeals from Nationwide. And, if they are so cavalier with the lives of their passengers in order to make a quick buck, I frankly think they deserve what they are getting.

And on a completely different subject, I have just read Sheila's blog. Those who wanted to do something to join the anti-materialistic Christmas revolution, check out the BRILLIANT post from Sheila in Canada and see what she and her daughter are doing....... Well done girls!

4 comments:

Sheila said...

Hi Suze..At the end of the day while I understand the frustrations and disappointments of the passengers who are left without flights, I think waiting 6 weeks for a refund is better than an accident. I'm glad they grounded them, especially as it may to serve as a warning to other airlines who cut corners.
Thanks for the mention regarding the Christmas post I did today. I hope it will inspire others to think of doing something similar.
hugs
xx

imac said...

Cor, seems all these big companies are cutting corners to save money to be cheap.Fly safe or dont fly at all.



Last post of the east coast

dot said...

You have the most interesting things on here. I don't know why I haven't discovered that before!

Janet said...

I hate flying anyway but when airlines cut corners just to save money it's scary.

I love what Sheil and Gillian are doing and think that's what I'm going to do also.