South Africa's Airlink sues SAA over alleged data theft

Airlink has confirmed it has applied for an urgent interdict and order from the South African High Court in Johannesburg to prevent South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) and its personnel from using or disclosing confidential commercial information allegedly obtained unlawfully by a former executive manager before she departed Airlink to join SAA. In the same application, Airlink is seeking a court order declaring the confidential information as Airlink's property and instructing all SAA personnel who possess the information to return it to Airlink and delete and, or destroy all electronic copies or derivatives of the stolen files, a spokesman informed ch-aviation. "Airlink anticipates instituting additional proceedings against some of its former employees on several related matters," he disclosed. The Citizen newspaper first reported that the sensitive information pertains to Airlink's commercial information on its contracts with travel agencies and travel management consortiums, along with the financial values of these relationships. At the centre of the allegations is Airlink's former executive manager of sales and marketing, Carla da Silva, who resigned abruptly from the airline to join SAA in November last year. An email dated October 29, 2023, obtained by The Citizen, revealed that while Airlink still employed Da Silva, she allegedly shared detailed information with ten colleagues who followed her to SAA. The email instructed including year-on-year flown revenues from Airlink's anchor client spreadsheet into a new database.<br/>