Five Forty Aviation Ltd has withdrawn the licences it had granted to FastJet's operations in Angola, Ghana and Tanzania to use the Fly540 brand with immediate effect. This, the company states, “is due to the failure on the part of FastJet’s Africa Operations to comply with the respective licence agreements signed with the Company”.
Specifically, Five Forty Aviation states that the payment of licence and other fees of US$6.9m, US$0.5m and US$0.3m for Fly540 Tanzania, Fly540 Angola and Fly540 Ghana respectively are outstanding as well as failure to disclose financial information for December 2012. Also, Five Forty Aviation states that “Contrary to the licence agreement and despite several reminders, FastJet’s Africa Operations have not provided information to the Company’s Head of Safety to demonstrate compliance with Five Forty Aviation’s accepted safety systems” and that FastJet has failed to “provide the Company’s Quality Manager with reports demonstrating that the quality systems are in operation “.
A statement by Five Forty Aviation reads: “As FastJet’s Africa Operations have failed to respond, notice has been given to Fly540 Angola and Fly540 Ghana to re-paint their aircrafts in a neutral colour. Additionally, FastJet’s Africa Operations have to re-brand all of the sales offices, removing the Fly540 brand; return all materials containing the Fly540 logo; and rename the companies other than 540. Also, as per the licence agreement, the Company has written to the Civil Aviation Authority in all three countries informing them of the withdrawal of the licences.”
Don Smith, CEO of Five Forty Aviation, said: “We had no choice but to take this action because the most worrying aspect of non-compliance with the licensing agreement is that we have no way of assuring that the planes are safe to fly. We have not received any safety reports for the past three months from FastJet’s Africa Operations and we believe that one plane, which flew with defects from Tanzania and landed in Nairobi on 14 December, should not have flown.”