2 D E C EM BER 2015

Open Letter to the Honorable President Mr. Jacob Zuma &

Honourable Deputy President Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa
The Journey of Skywise Airline took off on 11 th February 2015.
It is a 100% private and BEE women owned airline of South Africa
currently doing 40 Flights a week between Johannesburg and Cape
Town.
More than 200 people work for Skywise and it is funded with
personal funds without any government support or institutional
loan. Any business takes 6-8 months to break even and we were
close to that.
With only R4 million of arrears with ACSA and R4 Million with
ATNS, the airline is already on Fly as You Pay and duly paying its
daily commitments to pay in advance. There was an agreement
reached to pay the arrears in installments and two installments
were duly paid. The third installment was due to be paid on 1
December for which an extension of 48 hours was requested and
rejected.
We got a notice at 5pm dated 2nd December to be shut down with
immediate effect.
We have 200 employees who will be jobless not only in the month of
Christmas but God knows until when in a country with choking
unemployment levels at above 20%. Surely, this is not what we

expect from the Government authorities. When Government is

spending about R1 billion a day in infrastructure development it is
logical that they protect businesses that will complement such
efforts and speed up economic growth.
While the aviation industry is a catalyst to economic growth, in
South Africa it is a world where a few people influence the decision
making processes for their own benefits, and are responsible for the
previous failure of 11 private airlines.
People like us still take the challenge to reduce unemployment, grow
the domestic aviation industry and the greater economy only to
become a victim of financial stress when billions of rand is readily
available to bail out the national carrier.
More than R65 million personal funds has been invested in Skywise
and 4 years of hard work have brought us so far to serve the needs
of South African travellers and continue to offer them affordable air
fares.
For about 8 months we had made losses and we were now getting to
a point where we can break even. With peak season ahead and
more than 8000 passengers having booked to fly with Skywise
airline, they must be looking forward to have their holidays. Most of
them have never flown before and now have a chance to fly on
affordable rates because of Skywise airline.
For only R8 million in arrears government authorities have
shutdown yet another private airline, and close the doors of aviation
for new entrepreneurs. If Skywise fail there no entrepreneur will be
brave enough to take the challenge to launch into this brutal
industry! Will ours will be the 12th to fail!

Our aircraft, crews and staff are ready to take off any time,
what we need is the government to intervene in this matter
urgently and give us a chance to serve the people of South
Africa and create more jobs and expertise in this industry. Or
accommodate our passengers to fly with South African Airways.

R1 Building, Denel Aviation North, 131 Atlas Road, Kempton Park, Johannesburg
Website: www.skywise.co.za.