Grounded Mango airlines to pay out R29.5 million to passengers with unflown tickets
TICKET LIABILITY
STATE-owned Mango Airlines, currently under business rescue, has announced plans to pay back just R29.5 million of its R169 million ticket liability.
Image: Karen Sandison / Independent Newspapers
STATE-owned Mango Airlines, currently under business rescue, has announced plans to pay back just R29.5 million of its R169 million ticket liability.
Passengers who verified their claims before the September deadline will receive approximately 12.66 cents on the rand, while those who missed the deadline have forfeited their right to compensation.
Mango business rescue practitioner (BRP) Sipho Sono announced that last month the Air Service Licensing Council (ASLC) informed him that it had resolved to support the release of the funds, subject to the guarantee to him.
In order to proceed, approval is also required from the International Air Services Licensing Council (IASC), after which an update would be provided to Sono, who has indicated that he is awaiting feedback from the IASC.
The guarantee is R80m issued on Mango’s behalf by Standard Bank in August 2006, including an August 2011 addendum, issued in favour of the ASLC and the IASC.
The guarantee was deemed acceptable form of such passenger protection, intended to provide recourse for passengers in the event that Mango fails to honour un-flown tickets of its customers.
Sono has already liaised with the ASLC and IASC to request their guidance and provide information on what steps affected customers may take in order to claim against the guarantee.
In its response, the ASLC indicated that it had resolved to call up the guarantee and approach Standard Bank to release the funds to a liquidator as it does not have the administrative function or capacity to accept and process claims.
The BRP stated that if the amended business rescue plan is adopted Mango will then proceed in terms of a structured wind-down and Sono will accordingly be responsible for processing customer claims.
Sono will process payments to customers from the funds released by Standard Bank for the benefit of its qualifying passengers.
Mango commenced with a customer ticket verification process in June last year to enable passengers to verify their un-flown tickets or unused vouchers due to the suspension of the airline’s operations due to the Covid-19-enforced national lockdown in March 2020 and being placed under business rescue the following year.
The verification process closed in September last year and passengers who have failed to verify their claims on time have forfeited their right to claim a dividend against Mango.
Mango has stated that passengers holding verified unused or un-flown tickets and vouchers will be treated as creditors in the business rescue proceedings and will receive payment of a dividend representing a portion of the verified value of their ticket or voucher.
The dividend is estimated at 12.66 cents on the rand, according to the amended business rescue plan.