State-owned South African Airways (SAA) and Comair have had to ground some of their aircraft for compliance checks after irregularities were discovered during inspection at SAA’s maintenance subsidiary. In total, four airlines have been affected by the simultaneous aircraft groundings and the resulting flight disruptions, including SAA’s low-cost subsidiary Mango Airlines as well as Comair’s budget brand Kulula and flights operated on part of British Airways. While the nature of irregularities remains clouded and questionable, the flight cancellations are indeed real, as is the controversy surrounding SAA’s maintenance unit, which services both the flag carrier and Comair.
