In yet another twist of events, Five
Forty Aviation Limited has announced that it has withdrawn the licences
it had granted to Lonrho Aviation (FastJet Africa Operations) in
Tanzania, Angola and Ghana.
Interestingly, the Tanzania Civil
Aviation Authority (TCCA) said yesterday that it had not received any
official communication from Five Forty Aviation regarding the
withdrawal.
“Fly540 was first licensed in Tanzania
in 2008 and its licence was renewed in October last year. My office has
not been informed of the said withdrawal,” TCCA’s Director General, Mr
Fadhili Manongi, told ‘Daily News’ in a telephone interview.
In June last year, London Stock
Exchange’s listed FastJet, which was formerly known as Rubicon
Diversified Investments Plc, acquired Lonrho Aviation and thus gaining
control of assets and liabilities of the company in Tanzania, Angola,
Kenya and Ghana.
The new company re-branded in Tanzania
from Fly540 to FastJet Tanzania in November, last year, but it continued
using Fly540 brand in Angola and Ghana.
However, available information
indicates that lawyers representing Five Forty Aviation wrote to the
three African operations on January 24, this year, informing them on the
intention to withdraw their licence to use the Fly540 brand if they did
not comply with terms and conditions of the licence agreement within
seven days.
Five Forty mentioned the conditions that
had not been adhered to as payment of outstanding and other fees
totalling US 6.9 million dollars in Tanzania as well as US 500,000
dollars and US 300,000 dollars in Angola and Ghana respectively.
It also
stated that contrary to licence agreement and despite several
reminders, FastJet had not provided information to Five Forty’s Head of
Safety to demonstrate compliance with Fly540’s accepted safety systems.
“As FastJet has failed to respond notice
has been given to Fly540 Angola and Fly540 Ghana to re-paint their
aircrafts.
Also, as per licence agreement, Five Forty has written to
civil aviation authorities in the three countries informing them of the
withdrawal of the licence,” the CEO of Five Forty, Don Smith, was quoted
as saying.
In another development, it has also come
to light that Canadian company Avmax Aircraft Leasing has written to
FastJet saying it was removing the registration of three planes leased
by its operations.
The three aircrafts have allegedly run up unpaid
leasing and maintenance bills of almost two million US dollars
(approximately 3.2bn/-).
On its part, FastJet denied it owed the
Canadian company anything, stating that there has never been a
contractual arrangement between Avmax and FastJet.
It maintained further
that it is Don Smith through Fly540 in East Africa who entered into
contractual relationship with Avmax and these commercial arrangements
owes money to the Canadian company for unpaid aircraft lease rentals and
maintenance.
Source: The Daily News, www.dailynews.co.tz, reported from Dar es Salaam
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