Mango Airlines’ business rescue practitioner (BRP) Sipho Sono is planning to lodge an appeal against the International Air Services Council’s (IASC) decision to cancel the airline’s licence.
Sono previously wrote to IASC asking for an explanation on its decision to cancel Mango’s licence, but so far, he has not received any response. As a next step, Sono has decided to lodge an appeal against IASC’s decision and instructed his attorneys to begin the proceedings.
As of now, Mango’s operating licence stands suspended as the airline has not flown for a year since it was placed for financial restructuring in 2021.
Just last month, Mango’s BRP launched a legal battle to secure a decision from the South African public enterprises minister to unblock a potential rescue deal for the airline. Sono expressed his frustration with the government on not taking a stand on South African Airways’ decision to sell its shares in Mango, as this was one of the most important steps for the prospective bidder to potentially rescue the airline.
In its latest progress report, Sono added that the minister of public enterprises, the national treasury and the minister of finance filed notices opposing the High Court application, which had been due to be heard on February 28, 2023.
According to Sono, “Due to the very late filing of the state respondents’ answering papers on February 27 and 28 as well as an intervening application brought by NUMSA [union] to join the BRP and Mango as a co-applicant, the parties requested the urgent court judge to stand the matter down in order to consult with the deputy judge president to agree on the further conduct of the matter.” The matter has now been stood down until late May 2023.
South African Airways (SAA) had earlier argued that the government is right to take its time on deciding whether to approve the sale of Mango, claiming that the airline’s administrator had not provided enough details about the proposed investor.
In a statement SAA said: “Sono has announced preferred investors a number of times before but failed to furnish details. He would refuse to disclose to SAA and DPE [Department of Public Enterprises] the names of these preferred bidders, even though Mango shares are SAA’s property and we are within our rights to know the identity of the bidders.”
SAA further said: “When the identity of the bidder was disclosed it led to conflicting details. This dispute has erupted around the nature of the due diligence required on the now-restructured prospective investor and their business plan.”
Sono has confirmed that is the proposed rescue transaction fails, he will initiate a wind-down process for Mango. He believes that there is still a reasonable prospect of rescuing Mango, and that this outcome would be better for creditors and shareholders than liquidation.
Meanwhile SAA has claimed that he it has nothing to benefit from liquidated Mango deal.