President Cyril Ramaphosa and at least 11 passengers travelled at huge cost on an SAA A340 passenger jet to the Southern African Development Community summit in Kinshasa this week because none of the air force VIP fleet is serviceable.
This is partly because the air force has run behind in paying its subscription fees to the Jeppesen flight database, which effectively renders its aircraft not airworthy.
Inkwazi, the presidential Boeing business jet, would have cost about R800,000 for the eight flying hours to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and back, while the A340’s estimated average operating cost per flying hour is $20,000 (about R340,000) for the same flight, according to the aircraftcostcalculator.com website. This would put the cost of the trip at about R2.6m.
The SA Defence Force, which initially did not answer questions from the Sunday Times in detail, issued a statement on Sunday, after publication of the story, confirming the trip on the SAA plane, saying it cost R1.6m. "Inkwazi and other executive aircraft are currently out of commission. In addition, Kinshasa offers limited regular commercial flights. The absence of such flights would have delayed the President’s immediate return from the summit.
"Under these circumstances, the South African Air Force sourced quotes from potential service providers to transport the President and members of his delegation to Kinshasa in the DRC. The national carrier, South African Airways, was one of several bidders from whom the Air Force sourced quotes. SAA filed the lowest quote at under R1.6m," it said in a statement.
"Two quotes for significantly smaller aircraft came close to R1.9m each."
The SANDF also said the flight to Kinshasa carried 14 passengers, excluding crew members.
The subscription fee to the Jeppesen flight database for the entire VIP fleet is R300,000 a year.
Three sources within the aviation industry told TimesLIVE Premium the original tasking for the flight was for 12 people, including Ramaphosa. The A340 jet has capacity for 320 passengers.
A video posted on the official Facebook page of the presidency shows Ramaphosa and his delegation arriving in the SAA jet in Kinshasa.
According to Flightradar24, a real-time flight tracker map, an SAA flight named LMG1, the air force call sign that the president is on board, shows the flight departing from Johannesburg on August 15 for Kinshasa and returning to SA on August 18.
The aircraft's capacity is between 320 and 370 seats in a typical layout, with up to 475 passengers accommodated in a high-density configuration – providing an ideal mix of capacity and efficiency for operators across the globe.
• R2.6m: Estimated cost of the SAA trip to DRC
• R800,000: Cost of the same trip on the presidential jet
— In Numbers
Defence minister Thandi Modise recently attended the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security with her own delegation. Her department would not specify how she had travelled to Russia. Her spokesperson, Cornelius Monama, would only comment that she did not travel in a chartered aircraft.
TimesLIVE Premium understands there are a number of reasons why the VIP fleet cannot fly at the moment. However, the main reason is that the air force has not paid its subscription fees for the monthly updates of the database. No aircraft flying in international airspace is allowed to fly without the latest flight data.
Aviation specialists said subscription to Jeppesen is normally provided by service providers approved by Boeing, who provide the updates. The system updates onboard avionics on the aircraft, including the latest flight information about airports, landing strips, approaches to airports and other information. The system is usually updated every 28 days.
Should a client not pay in time, the operator will get another 28 days to renew its subscription. Thereafter, the onboard computers will warn the pilots about the database’s expiry and will function with reduced capability. In essence the aircraft is not airworthy.
It is understood that the air force is beyond two months in arrears.
Brig-Gen Andries Mahapa, spokesperson for the military, confirmed the database contract expired in March this year. An application process for the renewal was initiated in September last year, but Mahapa declined to say why it has not been concluded yet, only that “the processing forums were not functioning for some time”.
According to sources within the air force, it has to fork out money to charter flights, such as the one to the DRC, at almost three times the cost of its own VIP jets.
According to Vincent Magwenya, presidential spokesperson, Ramaphosa tries to use the least expensive available air travel as a matter of principle. Where commercial flights are not available on a specific route, it is the responsibility of the air force to find an alternative.
Frustrated air force sources closely involved with the VIP fleet’s operations told TimesLIVE Premium that apart from that, the “number two” jet in the fleet, a Falcon 900, has been fitted with modifications by the air force in conjunction with SAA Technical.
This was done in an attempt to save costs. Ideally, it should have contracted the modifications to a more expensive specialist service provider with the necessary standard technical certificate (STC) approved by the aircraft’s original design authority, Dassault Aviation in France.
Modifications by any local companies are allowed, but have to be approved by Dassault. In the case of the Falcon 900, the air force apparently went ahead with its own modifications despite not having the approved STC, which cannot now be signed off before Dassault has ascertained the modifications are in line with the minimum requirements.
The air force apparently chose to do the modifications themselves in another attempt to save costs, as it would have had to pay for Dassault’s approval of a new application for an STC.
According to Mahapa, the Falcon 900 upgrade was contracted out by Armscor to a SA Civil Aviation Authority accredited company, which was seemingly not aware of the STC requirements. He said the directive and service bulletins for the aircraft were approved as prescribed. However, he does not mention the modifications, which were allegedly not approved.
Air force sources said the aircraft needs an approved STC before it may fly again, which is why the Falcon 900 is going nowhere until a new application for an STC, specifying all the modifications has been compiled. That adds more costs to what was initially thought to have been a cost-saving exercise.
Approached for comment, SAA said it was "unable to respond to commercially sensitive information".
* This story has been updated with further comment from the SANDF received after publication on Sunday.
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