TO SUGGEST that Cape Town property executive Steve Dodds is bemused is putting it mildly.
His negotiations to lease prestige offices to Caribbean carrier APA Internacional Air - due to start flying direct from the Dominican Republic to the Mother City next month - have fizzled out and the airline's chief executive Dr Nemen Nader has vanished in a proverbial puff of smoke, to quote Dodds.
A week after APA Internacional Air was due to open its first South African office on the street level of Safmarine House in Riebeeck Street, Cape Town, the offices remain locked and devoid of any furnishings or decor, save a few Caribbean posters and the airline's two-tone green and yellow livery in display windows.
He (Dr Nader) has been unable to close the deal, simple as that, and he had no authority to decorate the windows, Dodds, leasing consultant for Old Mutual Properties, told me.
Three weeks ago, while overseeing shopfitting arrangements for the new suite of offices, the effusive Dr Nader asserted that APA Internacional Air had been granted temporary approval - what he termed normal procedure - to initiate weekly direct flights between the Dominican Republic and Cape Town
Two of these would be from the capital of Santo Domingo (Las Americas International Airport) and one via Caracas in Venezuela, involving mainly Spanish-speaking tourists and an import/export cargo operation on which about ten people would be deployed alone. (Total staff complement was put at around 30)
Airfreight handling at Cape Town International airport is split between SAA, Swissport, Cargo Service Center (CSC) and Airline Cargo Resources (ACR), and one would have expected the arrival of a new carrier, particularly one flying cargo, to be established news in this small community.
Yet, neither Allan Booysen, CSC's terminal manager, nor Justin Vida, ACR's operations manager, have ever heard of APA Internacional Air. Vida said the carrier would have had to negotiate ground handling arrangements with one of the existing airfreight operators.
Looking back on negotiations with Dr Nader, Dodds said: Everything was going well and then it just bombed. The lease, which he still has, had been signed but he did not come up with a deposit or bank guarantee.
Adding that the South American had been looking for a business partner in Cape Town, Dodds said subsequent attempts to make contact had proved fruitless. His 'cell phone is absolutely dead.
What further puzzles Dodds is that no information relating to the airline, pamphlets, brochures and the like, carry any addresses or other contact details.
Indeed, when I asked for his business card with head office contact details he did not have one, proffering instead an APA Inernacional Air card with an Athens address.
Says Dodds: Being so expressive, he (Dr Nader) created an over-positive impression but we in sales and marketing have been taught about that.
That APA Internacional Air was intent on setting up shop in Cape Town seems clear from correspondence Dr Nader handed me during our interview.
One, from the Mayor of Blaauwberg to Dr Nader, dated March 7, said that his authority had no hesitation to highly recommend APA's application to the Commission of Civil Aviation, the South African and Western Cape governments.
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