Van der Molen: Safair ignores SA ownership laws and heavily subsidised by Irish parent

Accounts publicly available in in Ireland’s Companies Office show that since 2019, SA’s dominant domestic airline, Safair, has been 75% owned by European operator ASL Holdings - contravening South African regulations stipulating a 25% foreign limit. Cemair founder and CEO Miles van der Molen believes sine May last year its Irish parent has been subsidising Safair by some R100m a month. In this hard-hitting interview, Van der Molen says it’s no innocent oversight by Safair, which was taken to task on the same issue in 2014. After initially complying, records show the airline quietly injected the shares into an SA shell company owned by its Irish parent. He spoke to BizNews editor Alec Hogg.

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