Comair is an airline based in South Africa. It operates scheduled services on domestic trunk routes as a British Airways franchisee and an affiliate member of the Oneworld airline alliance. Its main base is OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, with hubs at Cape Town International Airport and Durban International Airport[1]. Its headquarters are near OR Tambo in the Bonaero Park area of Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng.[2]
[edit] History
The airline was established and started operations on 14 July 1946 as Commercial Air Services. It was founded by Second World War South African Air Force colleagues AC Joubert, JMS Martin, L Zimmerman and JD Human. Scheduled services between Rand Airport, Johannesburg and Durban began in 1948, using a Cessna Model 195.
The airline grew over the next decades, to the point where it was able to start service on major domestic routes in 1992, using Boeing 737-200 aircraft. In addition to domestic flights to destinations such as Cape Town and Durban, it also offered a few international flights in Southern Africa, e.g. to Gaborone and Harare.
A franchise agreement with British Airways was signed in 1996 and in early 2000 British Airways acquired a minority holding. It was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in July 1998. The airline is owned by the management (25%), institutions and public (52%), British Airways (18%) and employees (5%) and has 1,447 employees (at March 2007).[1]
In 2001, kulula.com was set up. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comair and was set up as a low-cost airline.
On 6 September 2007, Comair extended its franchise agreement with British Airways for a further 11 years.[3]
[edit] Destinations
Map of the Comair network
Comair serves the following destinations (at 5 July 2009): [4]
The Comair fleet includes the following aircraft in BA livery (at 25 September 2009): [5]
Comair has announced it is in advanced talks with both Airbus and Boeing to replace it's fleet of 22 aircraft.[6]
[edit] Fleet in 1970
[edit] Incidents and accidents
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Members of the International Air Transport Association | | | | | | Asia-Pacific regional office | | | | | | | China and North Asia regional office | | | | | | | | | | Latin America and the Caribbean regional office | | | | | | | Middle East and North Africa regional office | | | | | | | North America regional office | | | | | | | Russia and the CIS regional office | | | | | |
