Fireblade Aviation, owned by the Oppenheimer family, has been given the go-ahead to operate a private international terminal at OR Tambo International Airport (Ortia) by the Pretoria High Court.

The international terminal at Fireblade will be available to all privately-owned or chartered aircraft within the commercial or general aviation sector. “The only limitation is that it will not process flights undertaken by commercial airlines who offer scheduled flights within the standard aviation sector (e.g SAA, BA etc.),” says Duncan Butcher, Legal Adviser at E. Oppenheimer & Son (Pty) Ltd / Fireblade Aviation (Pty) Ltd.

The facility has been open for domestic operations since August 2014, mentioned Butcher. “We were not able to offer our international services from that date due to the impasse with the customs and immigration issue. Everything has been in place for well over a year, and remains ready to ‘go live’,” he said.

However Fireblade does not yet have an estimated date for when the international services will become operational, as it is too soon after the judgment. “We still need to engage with Home Affairs and other respondents on this,” added Butcher.

The go-ahead for the terminal comes after the Oppenheimers accused the previous Minister of Home Affairs and now Finance Minister, Malusi Gigaba, of reversing his approval.

Butcher told Tourism Update that the High Court ruled in favour of Fireblade Aviation on October 27.

The ruling granted the aviation company permission to run a private customs and immigration service at Ortia.

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and the South African Revenue Services (Sars) will render the customs and immigration service, as is the case at Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (KMIA) and Lanseria, which are also both privately owned.

Leigh Gunkel-Keuler, Senior Manager: Corporate Affairs at the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) told Tourism Update that this was a legal dispute between the DHA and the Oppenheimer family.

“At airport level, OR Tambo International Airport acknowledges the legal determination of the North Gauteng High Court ruling and will engage Fireblade Aviation as an operational business like it does with all of its other airport community stakeholders, in order to ensure effective and seamless operations,” said Gunkel-Keuler.

This comes after a court battle in November 2016 against the DHA and others, when the Oppenheimers accused Gigaba of reversing his initial approval for the private terminal.

The High Court on Friday, declared that Gigaba had granted Fireblade’s application on January 28, 2016, during a meeting held in Hatfield.

Nicky Oppenheimer wrote to the Minister thanking him on the same day: “I was delighted to be told the outstanding matters had now been resolved and that you had signed the necessary letter to empower Fireblade to offer customs and immigration at its facility on a three-year trial basis.”

The minutes of the meeting reflected that the Minister had signed the approval, and that his approval letter would be released with a formal response letter addressed to Fireblade.

A few days later, Gigaba went on to reverse his decision.

Judge Sulet Potterill said that Fireblade has the support of Acsa, Ortia, and the DHA.

The judgement read various benefits for Acsa, one being:”There is a dire need for these premium products at the largest airport in Africa and the lack of these facilities is tarnishing Acsa’s brand.”

Potterill said: “It is unusual in Europe for a private aircraft to use an airport facility other than an FBO. There are over 5 000 FBOs in the USA. FBOs alleviate the pressure on the facilities of an airport, with the airport then free to focus on commercial airlines,” reported Times Live.

“In concluding and as outlined in the judgment, FBOs such as Fireblade Aviation are very common throughout the world, so we are not a ‘new’ concept by any means,” concluded Butcher.

Fireblade Aviation offers various Fixed Based Operations (FBOs) services available that range from maintenance of owner aircraft to the management of in-flight amenities.

Following this judgement, Fireblade Aviation will now be able, for the first time to offer the full suite of FBO services, which includes customs and immigration services at one of South Africa’s major airports.