Five Forty Aviation says it has withdrawn licences granted to Fastjet due to the failure “to comply with the respective licence agreements”, something which Fastjet says it is “powerless” to do.
In a statement Five Forty Aviation said it had “withdrawn the licences it had granted to Lonhro Aviation (BVI) Ltd operations in Angola, Ghana and Tanzania (“FastJet’s Africa Operations”) to use the Fly 540 brand with immediate effect”.
The group said that Fastjet had failed to adhere to several conditions, including the payment of outstanding licence and other fees for operations in the above countries, the disclosure of financial information for December 2012, the provision of information demonstrating “compliance with Five Forty Aviation’s accepted safety systems”, and the provision of reports demonstrating that “quality systems are in operation”.
As a result Five Forty Aviation has demanded that Fastjet’s Fly 540 aircraft be repainted in a neutral colour, all sales offices be rebranded, and all materials containing the Fly 540 logo be returned.
In addition the group said it has “written to the Civil Aviation Authority in all three countries informing them of the withdrawal of the licences”.
Five Forty Aviaton said Fastjet currently flies three Fly 540-branded aircraft in Angola and two in Ghana, and had flown two branded planes in Tanzania until November 2012.
Fastjet has responded with the following statement:
“Five Forty Aviation is powerless to terminate purported brand license agreements for any Fly 540 operations. Fastjet plc has responded to the unsubstantiated claims made by Five Forty Aviation regarding the Fly 540 brand through the appropriate channels.
“This will have no impact on operations. Fly 540 is powerless to withdraw air operating licences (AOCs). AOCs are agreements between Governments and individual entities.”
Fastjet launched services in November (see online news November 16, 2012), and recently announced plans for expansion into Kenya (see online news January 28).
For more information visit fastjet.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
