Permits hold back Khuphuka launch

The Durban-based air cargo carrier, Khuphuka Kings Airways (KKA), has postponed the launch of its weekly service connecting SA-Middle East-India – intended to have started this week. Marketing director Sihle Bam told FTW the airline was still battling to get a permit from the SA Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and from the authorities in India. The local permit, he added, was being hindered by recent changes to the compliance regulations related to foreign operators (the aircraft and crew they intend using will be leased from an overseas source). “It therefore takes at least a 21-day period for the CAA to conduct a review for a foreign operator’s permit,” said Bam. “This, along with other new rules we have to navigate around, means our intended service will be delayed for a month or two.” The Boeing 747-200 freighter he said the airline was to use a on the route was capable of carrying 110 tonnes per f light. And Khuphuka intends to be able to offer this capacity on weekly f lights, on an airport rotation of Durban- Dubai-Bombay-Durban. Questioned about the airline’s Durban-DRC cargo service due to operate two Ilyushin 76 planes with a carrying capacity of 46 tonnes each and to be launched in August last year, Bam had a sad tale to tell. “After all our publicity for this f light, we found ourselves in a difficult spot,” he told FTW, “with our main investor not coming in, and not transferring the funding as he’d agreed.” So KKA had to look for new routes, and this latest one showed the best promise, he added. But Khuphuka does not intend to blow its trumpets too loudly before the f light becomes a regular run. “So,” said Bam, “we intend to be very discreet about our first one or two f lights, and will then go public.”