Employees of Nationwide have been left financially stranded because of technical issues surrounding the liquidation of the airline, the United Association of South Africa (Usasa) union said on Wednesday. A Uasa divisional manager said the difficulties arose because the Nationwide group consists of four subsidiaries.
Nationwide’s ”arrogant” management was squarely to blame for its recent provisional liquidation, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union said on Thursday. In a statement, the union said the team, led by chief executive Vernon Bricknell, had proven itself incapable of managing the airline.
Nationwide Airlines has been placed under provisional liquidation, an attorney for the company said on Wednesday. "We applied yesterday [Tuesday] at 3pm and were placed under provisional liquidation," said Haroon Maher. On Tuesday passengers were stranded when the airline announced that it had ceased operations due to cash-flow problems.
Travel agent Flight Centre said it was ”blindsided” by the sudden closure of Nationwide Airlines and had gone into a crisis meeting to decide how to deal with the matter, with no information forthcoming from the airline, a spokesperson said. ”We were absolutely blindsided, we were completely unaware,” said Amanda Hardy.
Nationwide Airline has ceased operations until further notice, the airline announced on Tuesday. ”Our cash-flow has become critical and as a result have decided to voluntarily cease all flight operations until further notice,” said chief executive Vernon Bricknell.
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/ 27 February 2008
Nationwide Airlines will sell a majority stake to black investors that will result in the company’s recapitalisation, a media report said on Wednesday. Vernon Bricknell, Nationwide’s chief executive said investors, whom he declined to name, would bring resources to the table, including the company’s recapitalisation.
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/ 4 December 2007
The South African Civil Aviation Authority and Nationwide Airlines have agreed to a media blackout regarding the grounding of the carrier. They said they would no longer make independent statements to the press, but would speak jointly on the process, it was announced on Tuesday.
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/ 2 December 2007
It was unlikely that grounded airline Nationwide would be given permission for take-off to London on Sunday night, said the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Inspectors had spent most of the day examining the Boeing 767 the airline intended using on the flight, said CAA aircraft safety executive manager Obert Chakarisa.
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/ 2 December 2007
Grounded carrier Nationwide has leased an aircraft from Dutch airline KLM to fly passengers to London on Sunday night, said the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). However, Nationwide would have to prove that this aircraft complied with civil aviation safety requirements before it would be allowed to fly, said a CAA spokesperson.
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/ 30 November 2007
Nationwide Airlines said on Friday that all its domestic and international flights had been grounded by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority, but did not know how long the ban would last. Nationwide’s spokesperson Rodger Whittle said he did not anticipate that grounding would be a ”long situation”.
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/ 8 November 2007
The engine that dropped off Nationwide flight CE723 had sucked in ”an object” as the plane was taking off, the airline said on Thursday. It was commenting on the drama on Wednesday in which a Johannesburg-bound Boeing 737 lost one of its two engines during take-off from Cape Town airport, yet managed to land safely half-an-hour later.