Comair Airways Limited schedule back to normal, following a protest threat
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Comair Airways Limited announced on Thursday that it will continue its operations, following the threatened industrial action at South African Airways. File Photo: IOL Comair Airways Limited announced on Thursday that it will continue its operations, following the threatened industrial action at South African Airways. File Photo: IOL
JOHANNESBURG - Comair Airways Limited announced on Thursday that it will continue its operations, following the threatened industrial action at South African Airways Technical (SAAT).
The airline said that contingency plans were in place to mitigate any impact the SAAT strike could potentially have on the fleet availability and flight schedule.
“We will do everything possible to keep customers informed and to minimise the impact of any SAAT strike action. Serving our customers remains our priority,” said Wrenelle Stander, Comair’s Joint CEO.
The enterprise said customers could check the latest flight information on the relevant websites.
South African Airlines (SAA) said on Thursday it would offer unions a revised wage increase in a bid to avert a strike that has forced the airline to cancel domestic and international flights scheduled for Friday.
“We have a meeting scheduled for today at 2 o’clock and we are hopeful we will be able to resolve the issue ... It will include all the unions ... and if the meeting yields positive results we will then activate some of contingency plans that will allow us to reinstate flights,” said SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali in a live interview on news channel eNCA.
SAA has cancelled “nearly all” flights scheduled for Friday because of a strike over wage increases planned by a majority of employees, television news channel eNCA said.
Unions representing about 3,000 of its 5,000-strong workforce said on Wednesday that cabin crew and other workers at SAA would strike over the airline’s refusal of salary hikes and a plan to cut more than 900 jobs.
According to the report, only flights directly operated by SAA would be affected. Flights by subsidiaries Mango, SA Express and SA Air Link, as well as those of private operators, would not be affected.