The legal big guns were out in full force for the battle of the bailout between Comair and South African Airways (SAA) in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Trolley loads of lever arch files and a cooler bag for catering were wheeled into the court for the case of the Minister of Public Enterprises and seven others in which British franchise partner Comair objects to the Treasury's bailouts of South Africa's national carrier South African Airways.

Judge Hans Fabricius, who issued the landmark "right to die" ruling last week, is presiding over the case, sitting in the court that once hosted the Oscar Pistorius trial.

Comair, which also operates low-cost airline kulula.com, launched the court challenge in February 2013 following the government's bailout then of R5-billion.

In October 2012 the government granted SAA a R5bn guarantee for a period of two years. SAA told parliament in February 2012 it needed between R4-billion and R6-billion for a recapitalisation programme. One of the conditions for the R5-billion guarantee in 2012 was that SAA's board had to develop a turnaround strategy.

In October 2014 SAA was again seeking government support, two years after it was granted the R5-billion in loan guarantees.

In January 2015 Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene announced that SAA will receive another R6.5-billion injection from state coffers. This was after he said in his mini budget in October 2014 that SAA will not be bailed out and instead be restructured to become financially sustainable.

Comair CEO Erik Venter said ahead of the case that the airline regarded the bailouts and certain other government payments to SAA as not compliant with the Domestic Aviation Transport Policy or the law.

He told Business Report at the time that Comair's sole objective was to attain a level playing field in the domestic aviation market to ensure that all airlines face the same risks and the same requirements to operate on sound commercial principles.

Comair wants any assistance be in line with domestic transport policy to minimise the impact other operators.

The Free Market Foundation (FMF) said in a statement on Monday the basis of the challenge is that current and previous bailouts do not comply with either the Domestic Aviation Transport Policy, the Constitution, the Public Finances Management Act and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act or the SAA Act.

According to the FMF Comair wants the government only to provide funding to SAA after consultation with affected stakeholders.

Lawyers in court included Jeremy Gauntlett for the ministers of Finance and Public Enterprises, Matthew Chaskalson and Kate Hofmeyr for Nedbank, which issued the guarantees, Chris Loxton and Lwandile Sisilana for Citibank, Hamilton Maenetje SC for SAA and for Comair David Unterhalter SC, Andreas Coutsoudis and Max du Plessis.

Standard Bank, which also put up a guarantee was represented by Bruce Leech, and Hofmeyr again.

The first two rows of the court were filled with other attorneys taking notes and brandishing highlighters and moleskins as Gauntlett went up first to submit his argument.

News24.com