Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

South Africa’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that Civair, a helicopter and aeroplane charter service based at Cape Town International Airport, had applied to renew its scheduled passenger and freight licences to service routes between Cape Town and the East of England.

A CAA spokeswoman said Civair’s application was now before the International Air Service Licence Council awaiting approval after its original licence was automatically suspended for not being activated within the first 12 months.

“The process is long and involved especially for long haul,” said the spokeswoman. “There is a five-phase process, which can be expected to take at least nine months to complete.”

Once it has all the necessary South African regulatory approval and documentation and it has satisfied the requirements of the UK Department for Transport, Civair will be able to negotiate time slots with one of the UK airports, most likely to be London Stansted or Luton.

Civair first attempted to launch a long-haul, no frills service from Durban and Cape Town to Stansted at the end of 2004.

The airline got as far as taking over 7,000 bookings in the months leading up to the Christmas period only to have to cancel days before the first scheduled flights were due as the financing for its aircraft fell through.

Months later, Civair chief executive Andy Cluver reportedly tried to relaunch the route and has also since considered flying into Greece and Spain.

The Civair model involved three flights each week, eventually rising to five. To keep prices low on the 11 and a half hour flight, economy passengers – 22 seats were to be reserved for business class – would only have covered the flight and bottled water, with pillows, blankets, meals, headphones and drinks all optional extras that could be paid for either on-flight or beforehand over the internet.

At the time Civair said it chose Stansted over other UK airports because of its status and accessibility and the popular Essex airport is thought to once more be in the running for the route together with London Luton.

A Stansted spokeswoman said Civair had yet to make an approach, adding that the airport would welcome a link to South Africa as it was looking to expand its long haul capabilities – having had success with North American carriers, MAXjet and EOS, flights to the Middle and Far East through Turkish Airlines’ Istanbul connection and long haul to Toronto, Canada with flyglobespan.

Despite Civair’s unsuccessful first attempt, the appetite for links between South Africa and the UK is strong. According to the UK government’s overseas business enabler, UK Trade & Investment, the UK is South Africa’s major trading and investment partner and South Africa is the UK’s 22nd largest overseas market with exports totalling £3.2bn in 2005.

The UK is also South Africa’s second most popular foreign destination – long or short haul – behind Botswana.