Transformation key for training company

The port authorities have yet to announce which companies have made bids for its back-up helicopter pilot training scheme. (See page 13). However, an FTW contact who attended a meeting last week said that the port authorities had insisted that whichever company was chosen would have to have instituted the proper transformation policy to qualify as an accepted bidder. And, according to another FTW source with inside information on the situation, this would not include Acher Aviation – which was supposed to have already been accused by the authorities of not having conducted the proper transformation procedures. The source also said that he had heard that Denel Aviation was a bidder. But, he added, because of a serious shortage of appropriately experienced chopper commanders in SA, whoever is chosen is unlikely to have properly skilled pilots on their books. And he hinted that the likely candidates would probably be current Acher pilots, or those previously trained by that company. Why there has had to be a two-month delay between the end-January end of the Acher contract and some other company taking over remains the mystery. But, said Durban’s Mercury newspaper, a number of port users regard this as “arrogant and insensitive” on the part of the TNPA. “They say that the decision to take the helicopters out of service for up to two months or longer,” the report added, “with very little explanation other than to say it (Transnet) was taking over the operating of the service, has done little to convince them of any sensitivities to the costs being incurred by cargo owners.”