MORE than six weeks
after South African
Express was grounded,
many clients and agents are
still waiting for their promised
refunds, leaving frustrated
clients out of pocket.
Shaun Beckley, area sales
manager Africa and Indian
Ocean for GTA, said he
cancelled a SAX East London
ticket on May 31 and was told
that the refund would take 21
working days.
“I have not received any
funds to date,” he said.
“When I follow up they advise
that they are waiting for
management signatures.”
Nawahl Isaacs, consultant
at Club Travel Tygervalley,
said its office’s SAX refunds
had not been received. She
said so many of Club Travel’s
refunds were still outstanding
that the consortium was now
chasing these with SAX from
a head office level.
Karen Foley, manager at
Harvey World Travel Highway,
said she had received one
refund from SAX but other
refunds submitted on the
same day had not been
processed.
However, some agents have
received their refunds. For
example, Amanda Harrod, of
Sure Astral Travel, advised
that its refunds were received
in the June BSP and Christo
Hauptfleisch, director of XL
Wild Travel, contacted TNW
this week to advise that its
refunds had just come in.
Otto de Vries, ceo of
Asata, said this situation
demonstrated the double
standards that existed
between Iata’s airline and
agency operating procedures.
He said Iata was quick to
hold agency funds to protect
clients against potential agent
default, but that there were no
similar requirements in place
to safeguard clients against
airlines going bust or failing to
timeously deliver on promised
refunds. He urged Iata to
implement reciprocal airline
risk-management processes
in the industry as soon as
possible.
A recent update on the
SAX website confirms that
the Civil Aviation Authority
has approved the airline’s
Corrective Action Plans to
resolve its level 1 and level 2
findings, and reinstated the
airline’s Aircraft Maintenance
Organisation approvals on
June 22. SAX is embarking on
the re-certification process on
its Air Operator’s Certificate,
including verification of the
airworthiness of aircraft.
TNW approached SAX to find
out what turnaround times
were to be expected. The
airline had not responded
at the time of going to print
but undertook to make a
statement in a few days.
