Fly Africa's Air Operator's Licence Suspended

The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) has revoked the air operator’s licence (AOL) for troubled airline Fly Africa. Fly Africa has been accused of breaching regulatory requirements and will need to be recertified before it can start operating again.

Commenting on the matter Fly Africa said,

Fly Africa has, after consultations and guidance from the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) taken the decision to go through a re-certification exercise, in order to move the airlines operating aircraft leases from an ACMI (wet lease) arrangement to a permanent dry lease arrangement. The re-certification should conclude soon and see us unreservedly returning to the skies. We will keep all informed as we conclude.

A wet lease is a leasing arrangement whereby one airline (the lessor) provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance (ACMI) to another airline or other type of business acting as a broker of air travel (the lessee), which pays by hours operated. A dry lease is slightly different: The owner still provides the lessee with an aircraft – however, without a crew.