Air Botswana has suspended its Gaborone-Cape Town route as a result of the recent grounding of CemAir over regulatory compliance and aircraft maintenance concerns.
The four-times-a-week service was operated by a CRJ-100 that was wet-leased from CemAir, which has not been operational for over two weeks. All passengers affected from February 27 to May 31 will be able to request full refunds.
CemAir has refuted claims that 12 of its aircraft have been released back into service or cleared as airworthy by unqualified personnel. “The engineers concerned met the experience requirements in terms of the SACAA-approved Manual of Procedures, which defines all requirements for the operation of the CemAir AMO (Aircraft Maintenance Organisation)," it said.
CemAir CEO Miles van der Molen said good progress was being made with the South African Civil Aviation Authority regarding reinstatement of the affected aircraft's airworthiness certificates. “The situation has lasted far longer than expected, because of SACAA’s undertaking to perform a full review of all aspects of CemAir’s aircraft maintenance,” he said. Inspection, which is the next phase of the review, is expected to start this week.
