Local airline company CemAir has been ordered by the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) to return equipment it had leased from Swissport SA within five days, says a Cape Times report.

According to court documents, CemAir kept the equipment in their possession without having signed an extension of an existing contract.

Swissport had furnished CemAir with aviation ground handling-related apparatus and services for approximately seven years prior to April 2023.

In March 2023 – after the previous agreements had come to an end – the CemAir CEO requested a month-to-month lease for the equipment in which both parties executed a written Equipment Lease Agreement (ELA) which took effect on 1 April last year.

However, the ELA was not extended and lapsed over time.

The Cape Times report adds in April 2023, the airline company failed to return the leased equipment in its possession to its owners. The Swiss-based company subsequently requested a list of equipment CemAir was considering purchasing.

CemAir was then informed of outstanding debts, including R569 010 prior to the ELA, and was barred from leasing further equipment.

‘A portion of the letter relating to the ELA, however, was disclosed in the founding affidavit. In this letter the (airline) expressed dissatisfaction with (Swissport's) request for payment in terms of the ELA, as not all of the equipment had been delivered to CemAir. Additionally, they complained that some of the equipment was outdated and required repairs,’ the judgment read.

The letter subsequently stated: ‘We had no alternative but to proceed and contract with another ground handling company to assist where we are unable to operate due to the state of your client's equipment… We have incurred costs to repair two buses in the meantime as nothing was operable'. 

Judge Leonie Windell ordered that if CemAir failed to return the equipment, the Sheriff of the Court is authorised to attach and remove it and deliver it to Swissport at CemAir's cost.

Full Cape Times report

Judgment