FlySafair (FA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has once more been granted a domestic air service licence by the South African Air Services Council (ASLC). The licence will allow the Safair (FA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) subsidiary to operate scheduled domestic operations.
The carrier's initial licence was revoked last year after rivals Comair (South Africa) (CAW, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) and SkyWise (Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) successfully petitioned a Pretoria High Court on the grounds that the airline's shareholding did not satisfy the country's ownership laws limiting foreigners to a 25% stake.
"Since then FlySafair has restructured their shareholding, getting rid of the shareholding which caused the problems and at the same time concluding the largest employee share ownership scheme in the aviation industry, effectively giving its South African employees a 25.14% stake in the company," the startup said in a statement.
FlySafair had planned to offer multiple daily Johannesburg O.R. Tambo to Cape Town International flights using a fleet of B737-400s.
In a bizarre twist of fate, the South African Department of Transport did not renew SkyWise’s Air Services License claiming the permit had not been used in the 12 months since it had been issued.
