High-flying drama: SAA warned not to use Airlink info

South African Airways (SAA) and some of its senior employees have been served with court interdicts to stop them from using or distributing commercial information belonging to its competitor Airlink.

Airlink chief executive Rodger Foster confirmed the court action.

Court action

“Airlink confirms it has filed an application with the High Court in Johannesburg for an urgent interdict and order restraining South African Airways and its personnel from using or divulging valuable confidential commercial information we have good reason to believe was acquired illegally by a former Airlink executive manager before she left the airline to join SAA,” he said.

The application named head of marketing and sales Carla da Silva, along with other senior staff – some of them former Airlink employees – who were party to an e-mail distributed by Da Silva that contained the information in question.

The Citizen has seen the e-mail and the information, which Airlink confirmed.

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Document belongs to Airlink

In an affidavit supporting the interdict application, an independent forensic audit confirmed that the document held by SAA belongs to Airlink.

The affidavit also notes an alleged phone call by Da Silva to Foster after The Citizen’s exposé this month, wherein she purportedly admitted wrongdoing and sought leniency.

An excerpt from an e-mail dated 14 December, included in the affidavit and drafted by Da Silva, contained an outright denial that she held any confidential information belonging to Airlink.

“In the same application, Airlink is also seeking a court order to, among other remedies, declare the confidential information is Airlink’s property and ordering all SAA personnel who are in possession of the information, to return it and to delete and/or destroy all electronic copies or derivatives of the stolen files,” said Foster.

“Airlink anticipates instituting additional proceedings against some of its former employees on several related matters.”

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SAA head to court

On Sunday, City Press reported that SAA headed to court in an unrelated, but similar, matter where the state-owned carrier sought relief against a former employee who had allegedly removed what SAA called “classified information” from the company’s property.

SAA spokesperson Vimla Maistry declined to comment on Airlink’s application.

“The matter is sub judice as it is with lawyers now. This means the law is considering the matter and therefore prohibited from public discussion elsewhere,” he said.

However, at the time of filing it, and given SAA’s response, it was unclear whether SAA intended to respond or when a court date would be set.

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