Flight chaos as airlines shut down

It has been a week of chaos and anxiety for local travellers affected by the sudden shut down of Comair’s British Airways and Kulula.

There is story after story of people affected by the inconvenience, expense and hassle of having missed flights or rebooking flights to make it on time to business meetings, family functions or just wanting to get home.

Passengers were left stranded as Kulula and British Airways flights were indefinitely suspended at the weekend by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) due to safety concerns.

Adele Jossel and her husband, Anthony, 74, of Johannesburg are relieved to be back in Johannesburg after spending more than nine hours at King Shaka International Airport on Monday, 14 March.

“It was one of the most horrible days of my life,” said Adele, 72, who has type 1 diabetes.

The couple were due to fly back home in the afternoon knowing that their flight had been cancelled, but they had received notification from the airline that they would be accommodated on an alternate flight.

“When we got there just after noon, the Kulula and BA counters were locked up like a jail and there were no representatives. The lack of communication is what really got on my nerves and caused so much stress,” she said.

Fortunately, they managed to re-book on a later Safair flight which left at only 9.15pm and costing them a fortune.

“We got home around midnight and my sugar levels were haywire. I spent Tuesday drinking a litre of coke to stabilise from all the stress and aggravation.”

She said the writing was already on the wall when they flew to Durban on Kulula as the plane’s intercom system wasn’t working and the flight attendant had to use sign language to demonstrate the safety procedures.

Johannesburg resident Alyse Vituli is bitterly disappointed after missing her beloved mother’s 84th birthday this week in Port Elizabeth.

“I decided when she turned 77 that I would never miss being with her on her birthday, and I haven’t missed one since,” she said.

However, when her flight was cancelled “at the last minute”, Vituli could get a flight only with a different airline costing a whopping four times the amount of her original ticket.

“I know that if, G-d forbid, something else happened, I’d have found the money to go,” she said.

“I also know that this is a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but I’m feeling sad. What a blessing it would have been to celebrate 84 years with my mother.”

When Bev Shapiro of Cape Town woke up to the news of the shut down on Monday morning, she sprang into action. With her daughter’s wedding scheduled to take place in Mauritius at the end of the month, she knew she had to make alternative plans for the family of five to get there in time without any glitches. The little exercise in forethought has cost her family an extra R15 000 in local tickets alone to get from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

“Weddings are stressful at the best of times, this has added another dimension and put us out of pocket,” she told the SA Jewish Report.

“We were booked on Kulula from Cape Town to Johannesburg en route to Mauritius on an extremely tight timeline. I couldn’t chance it by waiting to hear what was going to happen, so I had no choice but to book five brand-new tickets on a different airline. It was this or no wedding, and we have waited long enough for this simcha,” she said. She’s hoping to get a refund.

One mother who wished to remain anonymous said her son, who is in matric at King David Victory Park, had a traumatic travel experience.

“He went to Cape Town with his father who was riding the Cape Town Cycle Tour [the Argus] and was due to fly home on Sunday afternoon, when flights were cancelled just like that with no warning.”

Her son was sent an SMS telling him to go to the airport anyway as there was an extra flight available later that night at 9.15pm. However, by 10.30pm, there was no sign of any flight. “Everything was closed, and there were no planes, people were just sitting around waiting. There was no staff, no communication, nothing. So, he left the airport,” she said.

“The next day, I spent hours trying to get him onto a flight home, but every flight was booked, I guess because it had been the weekend of the Argus. I was frantic to get him home. He’s in matric and it’s no joke, he can’t miss school.”

Eventually, she booked him on a CemAir flight on Monday afternoon at an inflated cost, but when he tried to check in, he had been bumped off the flight, even though he was several hours early.

The next available flight was at 9.15pm]. This flight was delayed, and he finally got home at 1.30am on Tuesday morning.

“I woke him up in time for school, but the ordeal was awful to say the least,” she said.

To rub salt into the wound, her husband landed up not riding the cycle race as it was too windy and misty, and the roads were wet and too slippery.

In a statement, the SACAA said, “The suspension follows the visit by the SACAA to the operator to investigate and determine the cause of a spate of occurrences affecting a concerning number of flights operated by Kulula.com and BA Comair. The SACAA sought to confirm Comair’s compliance with applicable civil aviation regulations.

“The inspection was also aimed at reviewing Comair’s quality control management system and safety management systems to establish compliance related to reporting, analysis, and follow-up on occurrences and corrective action plans to prevent recurrence.”

SACAA said it was committed to ensuring that Comair got back in the air and had dedicated a full team to review the evidence as it was submitted.

“The commitment to safety, in this case, supersedes any other need. This is to ensure that South Africa maintains its record of zero fatal airline accidents on South African soil in more than 30 years. The lives of our aviation personnel and the users of civil aviation services are paramount and it’s a responsibility the regulator doesn’t take lightly.”

According to reports, Comair went into business rescue in May 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the airline and travel industry. It resumed flying in December 2020, while in business rescue.

It has subsequently been forced to start and stop flights several times in the past 18 months because of ongoing lockdown restrictions.