High fuel costs have led to another casualty in the aviation industry following the suspension of services of a South African airline.
Nationwide Airlines, which operates around 50 domestic and international flights a day from the country, announced yesterday that it had suspended all operations due to financial problems.
The airline had been forced to ground its entire fleet over safety concerns last November after one of the engines of an aircraft fell off shortly after taking off from Cape Town.
Nationwide said it had not been able to recover its losses since that period, partly due to an increase in fuel costs.
Its CEO Vernon Bricknell said: “Our cash-flow has become critical and as a result have decided to voluntarily cease all flight operations until further notice.
“In the months of December and January we resumed operations and attained a gradual recovery of the business. However, in the months of March and April we faced a 30% increase in fuel costs coupled with a decrease in passenger load factors.â€
