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French Authorities sabotage of Comores Airlines
Question:
I am concerned at the actions of the French DGAC and their harassment, dirty tricks and mis-information spread concerning Continental Wings Comores Airlines. This airline is wholly owned by a small, peaceful, friendly, Islamic Government in Comores. The aircraft, a Boeing 747SP manufacturers serial number 22302 and now registered in Comores D6-OZX is owned and operated by my company Global Air Leasing for and on behalf of the wholly Comores Government owned company Continental Wings Comores Airlines. No personal investments whatsoever are held in the Continental Wings Comores Airlines, it is at this time wholly and 100% owned by the Federal Islamic Republic of Comores. Initially, this was intended to be a joint venture with a German backed group from Munich, however, it became apparent that this group did not have many of the things they had represented to the Government of F.I.R. Comores and indeed the World Bank. The World Bank, together with specialist experienced aviation consultants S.H. & E. from New York selected by the World Bank oversaw the formulation of the project and made the recommendation in favour of the German group’s business plan over two other rival plans. Unfortunately the German group turned out to lack the necessary investment capital, key experienced operational personnel and management experience, although their business plan certainly did not indicate this and was generally well prepared and presented. These circumstances could not be concealed beyond the first few weeks of operations when it eventually became clear to all involved that the investors had not in fact invested the money they had represented and agreed to invest. This action and the concealment of it was only possible with the assistance of and fully involved co-operation from a Marseilles based travel company that funded operations on behalf of the German group from their ticket and freight sales revenues. A meeting was held in Paris mid July of this year between the Comores Government representative in charge of dealing with this project, Capitane Fakriddine Mahamoud, Directeur du Cabinet de Chef de l’Etat – F.I.R. Comores, Eric Sossah, the Lawyer for the Government of Comores based in Paris, Thomas Grothe from the proposed German investors, Izu Scwartz of MATS Travel Company, Marseilles and myself. The German group eventually handed back their shares to your Government having never paid for them by investing the capital promised and resigned from the company. Global Air Leasing was asked by the Comores Government to stay and support their Airline as we have the aircraft, some key experienced personnel and have financially supported their company. I was asked to act as Administrator for the Airline. Neither I nor my company have any shares in the Airline or derive any revenue from being Administrator. Sometime ago now I had to decide who should be appointed as General Sales Agent for the Airline for France whose job would be to co-ordinate passenger ticket sales between the various travel agents in Marseilles and in fact over all of France. It should be noted that there had never been any such agreement for any such person or company previously. After looking at our options and meeting the people and companies interested on a number of occasions I decided that it would be most important to find someone with deep experience, someone who was prepared to support in all ways, including financially, the project of Continental Wings Comores Airlines, someone who was trustworthy and someone with patience and endurance through the inevitable difficulties that arise in most businesses when they get started. For all of these reasons I chose Mr Tony Medawar of Pacific Elysees, Paris and I must say to all that care to hear, Tony has surpassed my expectations and lives up to every one of his promises. I am greatly impressed by the many good people we deal with especially in Comores that really support their Airline by their work in so many areas. These people know who they are. They know their jobs and are ever eager to assist us all to try to make your Airline something that your Country can be proud of as a real achievement in the advancement of tourism, communications, freight, business, holiday, personal and family visitation travel in Comores and shortly in the surrounding regional area. Your readers may not be too surprised to know that we have been targeted for many inspections of our aircraft, our maintenance our crews and so forth by the French Civil Aviation Authorities since the beginning of our flights from Marseilles. I am pleased to report that we have had no less than 5 airworthiness inspections by the French Civil Aviation Authorities of our aircraft at various times in Marseilles and have passed all with flying colours. We have had similar experiences with our crews and our records and again all was checked and pronounced each time to be in order and acceptable to the French Civil Aviation Authorities. The aircraft was deliverd for this project with a current Certificate of Airworthiness issued by the Australian Civil Aviation and Safety Authority (CASA) and a fresh maintenance check and release to service (as further confirmation of its continued airworthiness) by Garuda Maintenance Facility which holds European (JAA), American (FAA) as well as Australian (CASA) certificates and authorities. The Comores DGAC inspected the aircraft, its records and maintenance system on arrival (as had the Australian authorities when they issued their certificate of airworthiness) and found all in order. The frequency and amount of the French Authorities questioning increased again around 11th and 12th October. Once again all of their questions have been answered, with appropriate documents supplied. It is our job to be ready and we take this and the safety of our operations very seriously. The French Civil Aviation Authorities issued a media release to the effect that they would stop the flights because of safety and security concerns for the passengers, etc. I am told they also issued another notice retracting this media statement a couple of hours after the first one was released – but somehow the story that appeared did not reflect or mention this AND the rather obvious questions that might flow from these actions. In spite of all of this Continental Wings Comores Airline’s flight on Monday 15th was fully authorised and approved by the same French Civil Aviation Authorities as being safe, secure and permitted to fly passengers and freight from Marseilles to Comores. Behind the scences also there have been some literally breathtaking inconsistencies by the French Civil Aviation Authorities. I can certainly sympathise with any in the Media or the public who have difficulty in understanding the position of the French Civil Aviation Authorities. It may not even be too unreasonable to imagine that because of their quite evident inconsistencies they have their own agenda. Beyond a certain point I think it is quite reasonable to see their actions amount to a form of harassment acting against the Federal Islamic Republic of Comores and their National Airline by the French Civil Aviation Authorities. Whether this goes higher in the French Government is a question I cannot answer. As usual, the actions of the French Civil Aviation Austhorities and indeed the French Government not necessarily their words will tell us all what we need to know. I leave it to your readers to imagine how well the French Authorities actions so far in this matter would stand up to any serious detailed independent scrutiny in the international and public arena. Or would it just be seen to be France prejudicing and commercilly sabotaging the endeavours of a small, friendly, peaceful, Islamic Country – a former Colony of France, that has been trying its best to develop an important new business and service for the Comorienne people as well as the people of France? Surely, it could not go un-noticed by the French Authorities that a French Airline operates to Comores and perhaps others from France would like to also. It is worthy to also note the Comores Government has allowed them traffic rights and access to the market which is also served from Europe by Sudan and Yemenia. It is certainly not noticeable that this French Airline is subject to the same over zealous treatment by the French Civil Aviation Authorities as Continental Wings Comores Airlines is subject to let alone the stigma of having prejudicial and blatantly inaccurate statements as to safety and security issued and run in the National Media of France. These same statements being disproved and contradicted by the fact the flights were approved which is tantamount to an admission by the French Civil Aviation Authorities that they got it wrong. This being further confirmed by their as yet unreported upon retraction of their earlier media release. For the record the aircraft is maintained according to the Boeing maintenance manual and operated according to the Boeing aircraft operations manual as recognised all over the world (including Air France who do the same) and approved by the Comores Civil Aviation Authorities who in turn act according to the rules of ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organisation that sets standards that France, Comores agree to be bound by, as indeed are most countries). It has been quite a significant challenge for all involved the establishment and foundation of Continental Wings Comores Airlines. I would like personally congratulate all of those involved, all who have travelled with us, who plan to travel with us or who have supported us even in their kind thoughts. It will be important to carefully build upon the foundations already laid over the last 3 months or so since operations of Continental Wings Comores Airlines commenced. We have a plan to enhance and support the existing business with regional services that can feed
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Response:
Your post is interesting, although I’m curious as to the identity of your intended audience in this newsgroup. I was also intrigued by your statement that the venture is "100% owned by the Federal Islamic Republic of Comores". I cannot imagine that the Comorian government has the capital to invest in this sort of thing: have they in fact put any funds into the venture? Are any figures available? I’m not an expert in aviation, but would imagine that running a 747 is not cheap – how many seats are you filling on your flights? — Iain Walker Department of Anthropology University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia