THE Joyce Aviation Group (JAG) has laid off some workers, citing a two-week delay in securing the renewal of its operational approval which the company’s chief executive officer and managing director, Captain Tim Joyce, attributes to a personality issue within the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji (CAAF).
Mr Joyce confirmed he met with Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and reported receiving a commitment to find a resolution.
While declining to disclose the specifics of his meeting, Mr Joyce confirmed the Office of the Prime Minister and the Civil Aviation Minister were committed to a quick resolution.
Mr Joyce stressed that CAAF had not officially removed the group’s approval but has failed to renew it.
“It seems they’ve given a commitment to find a way forward. We strongly maintain what appears to us as just a personality issue or a very minor administrative issue, but we need to stress they didn’t remove our approval,” he said.
“It’s just they haven’t renewed it, and we feel it’s a personality issue with particularly one or two of the chaff people and an abuse of power, that’s our thoughts on it.”
Mr Joyce said the financial strain of the delay has led to immediate job losses.
“The fact of the matter is, we had to start terminating a lot of our staff on Friday because we can’t sustain it.
“We’ve been down for two weeks with no movement forward from the chaff side.”
Mr Joyce said there needed to be a thorough independent investigation into what he had been alleging for a long time; however, he noted that the company has received support from stakeholders.
“There’s been a lot of assistance, I’ve got to say, and I greatly appreciate it from the board and so forth.
“I’m saying the board has talked to us and so forth, and other ministries, labour, and employment have been very supportive.”
“The core issue remains a lack of communication from CAAF officials; that’s two weeks they’ve refused to speak to us.”
Mr Joyce reassured the public and stakeholders that the licensing issue is not related to safety.
“We also need to reiterate to the public and our stakeholders that at no stage have they identified anything actual safety related or at any stage an aircraft’s been released for unsafe practices or anything like that.
“In fact, it was very poorly regarded anywhere else in the world as a very minor administrative oversight.”
