High fuel costs claim another airline victim
High fuel costs have led to another casualty in the aviation industry following the suspension of services of a South African airline.
Nationwide Airlines, which operates around 50 domestic and international flights a day from the country, announced yesterday that it had suspended all operations due to financial problems.
The airline had been forced to ground its entire fleet over safety concerns last November after one of the engines of an aircraft fell off shortly after taking off from Cape Town.
Nationwide said it had not been able to recover its losses since that period, partly due to an increase in fuel costs.
Its CEO Vernon Bricknell said: “Our cash-flow has become critical and as a result have decided to voluntarily cease all flight operations until further notice.
“In the months of December and January we resumed operations and attained a gradual recovery of the business. However, in the months of March and April we faced a 30% increase in fuel costs coupled with a decrease in passenger load factors.â€
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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