Kulula bookings from Thursday to go ahead, airline says

Kulula customers who have a confirmed booking for Thursday and after can go to the airport, the airline said.

“For those customers whose flights have been rescheduled or changed, you will receive an SMS with new details,” Kulula said.

This follows the SA Civil Aviation Authority’s announcement on Wednesday that it had lifted the suspension against Comair, which operates Kulula and British Airways.

The CAA said the audit and assessment of Comair’s submissions after the suspension of the company’s operating licence at the weekend were completed on Wednesday evening.

Kulula and British Airways (operated by Kulula) customers are advised to check their check schedules before going to the airport, as flights are resuming in a phased approach.

Comair CEO Glenn Orsmond said in a statement that the BA and kulula.com flight schedules would be restored in a phased manner.

“We’re pleased that the situation is finally resolved, following an immense effort over five days and nights to engage and work with the SA Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). After a thorough review of Comair’s documentation, the SACAA has lifted the precautionary suspension of Comair’s licence. Our focus is now to get our operations back to normal as quickly as possible so we can further assist our customers,” he said.

The CAA findings concerned the level of evidential support of some management systems and procedures relating to quality assurance processes, the structuring and personnel in the safety department and documentation flow regarding repair confirmations, said Orsmond.

“No safety and security findings were made regarding either flight operations or maintenance.”

During the precautionary suspension, he said the airline did what it could to help vulnerable customers and those that urgently needed to travel. This included chartering wide-bodied aircraft and accommodating customers on other airlines as far as possible, but with Comair operating 40% of the capacity in the market, there were not enough seats for everyone affected.

“The past four days have demonstrated the implications of having so much capacity removed from the market at such short notice. Having Comair’s operational capability restored is good news for our customers, our employees, the flying public and the sector,” said Orsmond.