Today marks the launch of the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) airline, with the inaugural flight taking place from Lanseria airport in Johannesburg to Bisho in the Eastern Cape. The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the start of this new chapter in the history of both the taxi and the civil aviation industry, which will make air travel more accessible and affordable to all South Africans, and shorten air travel times between Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.

This initiative has also contributed to the upgrading of the Eastern Cape airports at Bhisho and Mthatha, and will hopefully provide a much needed boost to the region’s economy, in particular the tourism and automotive industries.

However, we are concerned about the fact that Santaco Express will be operated by AirQuarius Air Charters. An internal memo from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and various supporting documents show that AirQuarius was provided with a fraudulent airworthiness inspection document in 2010, and that the airworthiness inspector whose falsified signature appears on the inspection document was not even aware that the operator was at the airport where the inspection purportedly took place.

Although the memo is dated 15 September 2010 – a year ago – I have been reliably informed that this matter has not been resolved and that AirQuarius Charters continues to operate, possibly without meeting legal requirements.

We hope that the cloud hanging over AirQuarius will not affect the success of the Santaco airline, and urge the CAA to resolve this matter as speedily as possible.