Page 64 - World Airnews September 2020 Edition

NEWS DIGITAL

NEW SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL

AIRLINE COULD LAUNCH IN

JANUARY

By Mark Finlay

This includes whittling down 625 pilots to just 68.
It has also been reported that pilot seniority will not be a part
A new South African airline could start operations as soon as of deciding which pilots will be offered jobs with the new SAA.
January next year, according to a South African financial website According to BusinessTech, equal employment metrics will be used
BusinessTech. to determine which of the pilots and crew get to stay.
While quoting another South African newspaper the Sunday In its statements regarding the airlines, the DPE has said that
Times, BusinessTech said that the South African government is the new SAA will be run professionally. By operating, in this way,
the new SAA will help promote tourism and serve as an African
working with private investors and has already received more than gateway to international markets.
ten offers.
The paper claimed that the private firms looking to invest in the The DPE listed the following things it would like to see with the
new SAA is also exploring the integration of some of the airline’s new SAA:
subsidiaries, including Mango and SAA Technical. • A modern fuel-efficient fleet of aircraft
Mango Airlines is SAA’s low-cost subsidiary based at OR Tambo • Routes at competitive prices
International Airport (JNB). SAA Technical meanwhile provides • The proper deployment of SAA assets
aircraft maintenance services for many of the continent’s airlines. • Connecting South Africa to the world
Last week business newswire service Bloomberg also reported • A motivated workforce
that the government had started talks with potential partners and • Focused on the customer
that SAA needed a minimum of R10billion or (US) $583 million to While all this talk seems promising, no investor in their right
start flying again. According to Kgathatso Tlhakudi, the department mind would touch SAA until it was dismantled correctly and
of public enterprises (DPE) boss, members of his staff and advisers debt-free. Even if it was managed successfully, had new planes and
from Rand Merchant Bank entered into talks after receiving four a smaller workforce, it’s hard to imagine the new SAA making any
promising proposals. money for at least three years, and that’s without the impacts of
While being interviewed by Bloomberg recently, Tlhakudi coronavirus.
declined to name the interested investors but said he would like to
see the airline resume operations by the end of the year. He also CAN SAA BE SAVED?
stressed that getting the airline flying again could depend on the
current corona virus pandemic. The new SAA sounds nothing more than a government vanity
project that they hope will bring tourists to the country and
SAA STOPPED FLYING IN MARCH provide jobs for 1,000 workers.
Also, don’t be lured in by talks of Ethiopian Airlines being one
SAA entered into administration last December after the South of the potential investors as they are doing just fine and have no
African government refused to give it any more money. The airline intention of investing in the new SAA.
managed to keep flying until March when the government closed The fact is that there is just one solution for SAA, and that is to
South Africa’s borders to help stop the spread of COVID-19. fold the airline and sell its assets to the highest bidder. If a private
In a bid to bring the bloated airline’s workforce down, adminis- entity thinks that it can make a go of running an airline in South
trators have been offering voluntary severance packages. Of the Africa at such time, the government can grant them an operator’s
current 3,700 employees, only 1,000 will get to keep their jobs. licence. Q

World Airnews | September Extra 2020
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