Silverstone Planes: This week, Silverstone Air announced that it had sent its pilots and all crew members packing. The low-cost carrier also announced that it was closing business. The company now says that this has been the result of losses it has incurred after the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) suspended its fleet of Dash 8 aeroplanes over safety concerns.
Silverstone says that it has been making a loss of Sh. 70 million per week from the charges incurred in refunding air tickets that customers had booked in advance.
The losses mean that Silverstone has been losing Sh10 million a day. This includes costs incurred in hangar fees and other expenses the carrier must meet despite not operating.
“The losses we’ve incurred translate to Sh. 70 million to date. During normal operations, Silverstone spends about Sh. 800,000 on fuel and Sh. 600,000 on landing fees,” the airline said Wednesday.
Silverstone fires all pilots and crew members, shuts down business
A report that appeared in the Business Daily on Thursday said that the firm said despite media reports that KCAA has cleared its Dash 8 aircraft, it can only resume operations after receiving a detailed report from the regulator to evaluate whether a return to the business was worth it.
“Silverstone is now demanding to see the full review from KCAA with detailed explanations at to what it did wrong that led the regulator to halt the fleet,” the report said. The airline has been in business in Kenya since 2017.
“A decision to go back to business has not been arrived at now. KCAA is yet to tell us what they found during their audit. It’s unfortunate that they are talking to us through the media,” Silverstone said.
Very unfortunate indeed. As Silverstone winds up, let’s hope the regulator will do that business and pay himself all the amt that was being paid by Silverstone. That is the result of harsh regulators.
A good regulator works with such operators to ensure compliance. Not waking up one day and halting services . Then you expect business to remain afloat, never. Close business in Kenya. Open in Rwanda. Conditions in Rwanda are good.