CemAir (Pty) Ltd is a privately owned airline operating in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

, servicing popular tourist destinations and important business towns, as well as leasing aircraft to other airlines across

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. The airline is based in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

History

The company was formed in 2005 with the purpose of operating turboprop commuter aircraft, with the initial fleet consisting of 1

Cessna Grand Caravan The Cessna 208 Caravan is a utility aircraft produced by Cessna. The project was commenced on November 20, 1981, and the prototype first flew on December 9, 1982. The production model was certified by the FAA in October 1984 and its Cargoma ...

aircraft and 3

Beechcraft 1900 The Beechcraft 1900 is a 19-passenger, pressurized twin-engine turboprop regional airliner manufactured by Beechcraft. It is also used as a freight aircraft and corporate transport, and by several governmental and military organizations. With ...

C aircraft. In January 2018, the

South African Civil Aviation Authority The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA or CAA) is the civil aviation authority of South Africa, overseeing civil aviation and governing investigations of aviation accidents and incidents. It is headquartered in the Ikhaya Lokundiza Buil ...

withdrew the

Certificate of Airworthiness A standard certificate of airworthiness is a permit for commercial passenger or cargo operation, issued for an aircraft by the civil aviation authority in the state/nation in which the aircraft is registered. For other aircraft such as crop-spraye ...

for 12 of the airline's aircraft due to allegedly unqualified personnel certifying the aircraft as airworthy. It was subsequently forced by the authorities to suspend operations in late 2018. The airline successfully launched a High Court challenge and the grounding was overturned. The CAA then again grounded the Airline in January 2019 and CemAir challenged the decision before the Civil Aviation Appeal Committee. On 29 April 2019, the CAAC issued a judgement in favour of the airline, calling the CAA's actions "irrational, arbitrary, unreasonable and procedurally unfair" and "factually wrong." The decision was challenged and the CAA decision was overturned by the Civil Aviation Appeal Committee. In January 2021, CemAir signed an interline agreement with

Ethiopian Airlines Ethiopian Airlines (commonly referred to as Ethiopian; am, የኢትዮጵያ አየር መንገድ, translit=Ye-Ītyōṗṗyā āyer menged), formerly ''Ethiopian Air Lines'' (EAL), is the flag carrier of Ethiopia, and is wholly owned by ...

Corporate affairs

Head office

CemAir's head office and engineering and maintenance facility are located in Hangar 6

OR Tambo International Airport O. R. Tambo International Airport is an international airport situated in Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. It serves as the primary airport for domestic and international travel to/from South Africa and since 2020, it is Africa's secon ...

Destinations

Charter operations

Based at

, a large portion of the fleet is deployed outside of

. The main foreign deployments are to

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

in West Africa,

Gaborone, Botswana Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaborone ...

, and

Juba, South Sudan Juba () is the capital and largest city of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and also serves as the capital of the Central Equatoria State. It is the world's newest capital city to be elevated as such, and had a population ...

Scheduled destinations

Domestic

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape To ...

Bloemfontein Airport Bram Fischer International Airport ( af, Bram Fischer Internasionale Lughawe) is a primary airport located in Bloemfontein, the capital city of the Free State province of South Africa. The runways are shared with AFB Bloemspruit. In November ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

Cape Town International Airport Cape Town International Airport is the primary international airport serving the city of Cape Town, and is the second-busiest airport in South Africa and fourth-busiest in Africa. Located approximately from the city center, the airport wa ...

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

George Airport George Airport ( af, George Lughawe) is an airport located in George, Western Cape, South Africa. It was formerly known as P.W. Botha Airport, named after the state president who lived in this part of the country. This airport was originally ...

Hoedspruit Hoedspruit (Afrikaans for ''Hat Creek'') is a town situated at the foot of the Klein Drakensberg (Afrikaans for "Small Dragon Mountains" range), in the Limpopo province of South Africa, on the railway line from Tzaneen to Kaapmuiden. Economy The ...

- Hoedspruit Airport *

O.R. Tambo International Airport O. R. Tambo International Airport is an international airport situated in Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. It serves as the primary airport for domestic and international travel to/from South Africa and since 2020, it is Africa's second ...

hub *

Margate Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook. The town has been a significan ...

- Margate Airport *

Plettenberg Bay Plettenberg Bay, nicknamed Plet or Plett, is the primary town of the Bitou Local Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. As of the census of 2001, there were 29,149 population. It was originally named Bahia Formosa ("beautifu ...

- Plettenberg Bay Airport *

Sishen Dingleton is a town in Northern Cape, South Africa. The nearby Sishen mine is an iron ore mining activity, connected to the port of Saldanha Bay by the Sishen-Saldanha Railway Line. The line is electrified at 50 kV AC 5 (five) is a number, n ...

- Sishen Airport * Richards Bay - Richards Bay Airport ''suspended'' * Kimberley -

Kimberley Airport Kimberley Airport is an airport serving Kimberley, the capital city of the province of Northern Cape in South Africa. The airport is approximately 10 km away from the centre of Kimberley.url=https://kimberleyairport.co.za, date= 24 Octo ...

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

King Shaka International Airport King Shaka International Airport , abbreviated KSIA, is the primary international airport serving Durban, South Africa. Located in La Mercy, KwaZulu-Natal, approximately north of the city centre of Durban. The airport opened its doors to pass ...

* Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) -

Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport is an airport serving Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha), a city in the Eastern Cape province in South Africa. It was formerly known as H. F. Verwoerd Airport and Port Elizabeth International Airport. The ...

International

Luanda, Angola Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport ( pt, Aeroporto Internacional 4 de Fevereiro, sw, Uwanja wa Ndege wa Kimataifa wa Quatro de Fevereiro), is the main international airport of Angola. It is located in the southern part of the capital Lua ...

Lusaka, Zambia Lusaka (; ) is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was about 3.3 millio ...

Kenneth Kaunda International Airport Kenneth Kaunda International Airport is an international airport located in Chongwe District, off the Great East Road, approximately northeast of the city centre of Lusaka, the capital and largest city of Zambia. The airport has a capacity ...

''suspended'' *

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,0 ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

Maputo International Airport Maputo International Airport , also known as Mavalane International Airport, formerly Lourenço Marques Airport (IATA: LUM), is an airport located northwest of the center of Maputo, the largest city and capital of Mozambique. It is the largest ...

Vilankulo Vilankulo (or Vilanculos) is a coastal town in Mozambique, lying in the Vilanculos District of Inhambane Province. Vilankulo is named after local tribal chief Gamela Vilankulo Mukoke, and some of the "bairros" (suburbs) are named after his sons. ...

Vilankulo Airport Vilankulo Airport is an airport in Mozambique that serves the city of Vilankulo in the Inhambane Province. Modernisation In 2009 a Chinese company called Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Corporation began construction work on the airpor ...

Fleet

Cemair CL600-2B19 CRJ-100ER ZS-CMB (24002529411)

, the CemAir fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Accidents and incidents

CemAir suffered two hull losses in 2008 with aircraft leased out to 3rd parties, one in

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of th ...

and the other in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. *On 2 May 2008, a CemAir-owned

- registered in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and operated by Kenyan-based Flex Air Cargo - was flying from Wau to

when it crashed near

Rumbek Rumbek ( ar, رمبك) is the capital of Lakes State, central South Sudan, and the former capital of the country. Location Rumbek is approximately by road northwest of Juba, the capital and largest city in the country. Its coordinates are an ...

, killing all nineteen passengers and two crew. Among the passengers were two senior officials of the

Sudan People's Liberation Army The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the army of the Republic of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a ...

and their wives. *On 1 September 2008, an Air Serv-leased nineteen passenger

Beechcraft 1900C The Beechcraft 1900 is a 19-passenger, pressurized twin-engine turboprop regional airliner manufactured by Beechcraft. It is also used as a freight aircraft and corporate transport, and by several governmental and military organizations. With ...

crashed in the

, about 15 km northwest of

Bukavu Bukavu is a city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), lying at the extreme south-western edge of Lake Kivu, west of Cyangugu in Rwanda, and separated from it by the outlet of the Ruzizi River. It is the capital of the South Kivu pro ...

carrying two crew and fifteen passengers. The aircraft was

wet lease Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide tempora ...

d at the time and flown by crew from Cemair, which was then based at Lanseria International Airport,

Johannesburg, South Africa Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

. The flight was arriving at Bukavu following technical service at

N'Dolo Airport N'Dolo Airport , also known as Ndolo Airport, is a secondary airport in the city of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the commune of Barumbu near the city center. The ''Aviation militaire de la Force Publique'' was establish ...

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of ...

. The aircraft crashed into a mountainous ridge. Passengers included twelve Congolese, one French, one Indian, and one Canadian. All 17 occupants were killed.https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20080901-1

References

{{IATA members, africa Airlines of South Africa Airlines established in 2005 Companies based in Johannesburg