SAA ditches domestic routes, confirms jobs will be lost

The announcement was made by the state-owned airline’s joint Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) on Thursday.

SAA will on 29 February stop operating flights on all domestic routes, except between Johannesburg and Cape Town. Domestic routes operated by Mango will not be affected by the changes.

Apart from the domestic routes, 11 regional and international routes will also be cancelled at the end of February. These include flights from Johannesburg to Abidjan via Accra, Entebbe, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Livingston, Luanda, Munich, Ndola, and Sao Paulo.

“On the domestic route network, SAA will continue to serve Cape Town on a reduced basis,” the statement read.

On February 29, 2020, SAA will also close the regional and international services from Johannesburg to Abidjan via Accra, Entebbe, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Luanda, Munich, Ndola, and Sao Paulo.

“SAA will continue to operate all international services between Johannesburg and Frankfurt, London Heathrow, New York, Perth and Washington via Accra.

“Regional services to be retained include from Johannesburg to Blantyre, Dar es Salaam, Harare, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lilongwe, Lusaka, Maputo, Mauritius, Nairobi, Victoria Falls and Windhoek.

“All customers booked on any cancelled international and regional routes will receive a full refund. Customers booked on cancelled domestic flights will be re-accommodated on services operated by Mango.

“SAA does not intend to make any further significant network changes. Passengers and travel agents can therefore feel confident about booking future travel with South African Airways,” the BRPs said.

“The flight schedule for February remains unchanged.

“Following a careful analysis of SAA’s liquidity challenges and after consultations with all relevant stakeholders, the BRPs have identified which routes will be retained to drive the restructured national carrier towards profitability,” according to the statement.

“To improve the airline’s liquidity, rationalisation programmes are under consideration for SAA’s subsidiaries, as well as the sale of selected assets. The BRPs will continue to explore viable investment opportunities with potential investors in respect of SAA.”

JOBS

“It is our intention to restructure the business in a manner that we can retain as many jobs as possible. This will help provide a platform to a viable and sustainable future. However, a reduction in the number of employees will unfortunately be necessary.

“The BRPs will engage labour, both organized and non-organized, to reach a solution necessary for a sustainable airline going forward.

“The initiatives we are taking now will strengthen SAA’s business. We believe that this should provide reassurance to our loyal customers that SAA is moving in the right direction. We are focused on our mandate to restore SAA’s commercial health and create an airline that South Africans will be proud of,” the statement concluded.

(Compiled by Carina Koen.)

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