interessante articolo del 4 dicembre !!
South Africa: Safair Rents Alitalia's Old Aircraft
Julius Baumann
4 December 2008
Johannesburg — A NUMBER of MD82 aircraft once belonging to failed Italian airline Alitalia are due to arrive in SA soon where they will be taken over by Safair.
Safair, the aircraft leasing and financing company based at OR Tambo International Airport, will be taking over 18 of 25 of the MD82 jets leased to Alitalia by its parent Aergo Capital, the world's largest jet leasing group.
The Italian airline has been taken over by a group of Italian businessmen after it fell into bankruptcy earlier this year. The CAI investor consortium, which will officially take over the airline in the new year, will be operating a much smaller airline and has returned the aircraft to Aergo.
"These aircraft are well suited for operations in SA and Africa. The aircraft will go in for maintenance before being leased out or sold," CEO of Safair, Christo Kok, said yesterday.
He said there were several interested parties including local low-cost carrier 1Time which operates a fleet of MD82s.
Kok said with so many airlines closing their doors or scaling back their operations, the market was flooded with aircraft. "It is most certainly a buyer's market."
1Time is closely tied to Safair, having recently acquired a majority share in Safair Technical, the group maintenance division, which it plans to merge with its maintenance division Aeronexus.
Glenn Orsmond, CEO of 1Time Holdings, yesterday said the airline would be acquiring two of the aircraft as it continues to expand its network.
"We are looking at adding new destinations in Africa next year as well as new routes from Lanseria International Airport ," he said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200812040055.html
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Johannesburg Airport was renamed O. R. Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) on the 27th October 2006 (it was originally known as Jan Smuts Airport, but had been named Johannesburg Airport in 1994 when the ANC government made a decision not to name airports after politicians). The name Jan Smuts Airport explains where the airport’s ICAO code, FAJS, comes from. OR Tambo Airport is situated just east of Johannesburg in the Gauteng Province of South Africa.
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O.R Tambo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Tambo