BL Premium reports that the SA aviation industry, which was in the spotlight after the grounding of Comair flights recently, saw an exit of senior staff and the retrenchment of workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to a shortage of skills.
Aviation expert Guy Leitch observed: “A lot of good talent on the maintenance side has left the industry and are not coming back.” He added that the skills base in the industry was under “a lot of pressure” due to seasoned maintenance talent opting for early retirement. “SA must make an enormous effort to develop skills. The country must bring new people into the industry and retain them rather than losing them to overseas operators who come poaching,” Leitch stated. Comair, which operates flights by British Airways (BA) and Kulula, was grounded for five days in March by the SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) after safety concerns including an engine and landing gear failure on some of its aircraft. Last week, domestic carrier FlySafair grounded an aircraft to investigate a technical error after two flight diversions. But, FlySafair, which maintains its own aircraft, has indicated that despite the pressure experienced by the airline industry over the last two years, it has retained all its maintenance staff. National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said if these incidents were not attended to “on an urgent basis” they might cause “serious harm” to the industry. “It is possible that the retrenchments that took place last year at SAAT [SAA Technical] had an effect because many airlines depended on SAAT. A lot of skills were lost as a result of job losses because the retrenchments focused on workers, and management positions remained largely intact,” she commented.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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