South African Airways (SAA) gets new GSA for the UK

South African Airways (SAA), the national carrier of South Africa, has appointed Discover the World, a global leader in tourism and airline representation, as its general sales agent (GSA) in the United Kingdom. Effective 1 June 2022, Discover the World will be assuming responsibilities for sales and marketing representation for South African Airways in the United Kingdom.

South African Airways will be closing its regional office in London on 31 July 2022, where it has maintained a strong presence with customers and the travel trade for over 70 years.  While SAA has temporarily suspended flights to UK and Europe, due to the pandemic and its business restructuring, Discover the World's appointment will ensure the airline's favourable brand reputation is maintained in the market and will provide continued engagement with the travel trade and corporate partners in developing further business opportunities.

South African Airways (SAA) is the national carrier of South Africa and serves destinations within South Africa and across the African continent with a modern fleet of Airbus aircraft.  It is a member of the largest international airline network, Star Alliance, which offers Voyager members the opportunity to earn and redeem travel awards to over 1,900 destinations worldwide.  SAA's core business is the provision of passenger airline and cargo transport services together with related services, which are provided through SAA and its wholly-owned subsidiaries: SAA Technical and Air Chefs, the catering entity of SAA.  

Travel Advisors can contact South African Airways for sales assistance and support via email at:  tradesupport@flysaa.com 

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Airlink's bid to halt SAA creditors meeting to be opposed

South Africa plans to oppose an application by regional airline Airlink to put South African Airways (SAA) into provisional liquidation and prevent a meeting of SAA’s creditors to discuss a restructuring plan, the government said on Monday, reports Reuters. 

Airlink was a franchisee of state-owned SAA for over two decades, an arrangement that allowed SAA to sell tickets and fly passengers on Airlink flights. SAA still owes some fees to Airlink, making the latter an unsecured creditor.

More delays to the SAA rescue plan

The rescue plan of the embattled South African Airways (SAA) was halted yet again on Monday, this time because the unions are unhappy with what's on the table.

A spokesperson said creditors had given a one-week delay in the publication of the rescue plan to June 15. The extension was given after the NUMSA, SACCA and SAAPA unions objected to the plan being published on Monday pending further talks with the government on a draft version of the plan.

This is the last chance for the airline, which has not made a profit for nine years and has been plagued over recent years with poor management, corruption, staff apathy and underfunding. This latest rescue deal has been pushed back many times after various factions have squabbled over what future the airline will have. 

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South African Airways rescue team to appeal court ruling on layoffs

Administrators trying to save South African Airways (SAA) will appeal a court ruling that ordered them to halt a layoff process, one of the administrators Siviwe Dongwana told Reuters.

State-owned SAA has been fighting for its survival since entering a form of bankruptcy protection called “business rescue” in December. Its fortunes deteriorated when the coronavirus pandemic forced it to halt all commercial passenger flights and the government said it would not provide further funding.

The Labour Court’s decision to side with two trade unions in its judgment on Friday was a major blow to the administrators as they have said that layoffs are necessary to avoid the airline being liquidated.

The court ruled that it was “procedurally unfair” for administrators Dongwana and Les Matuson to issue notices to workers about consultations on layoffs without having first presented a business rescue plan.

South African court halts layoffs at ailing airline SAA

South Africa’s Labour Court ordered a halt to layoffs at ailing South African Airways (SAA) on Friday, siding with two trade unions who had argued that the airline’s administrators had acted unfairly.

The decision throws efforts to rescue SAA into greater disarray after the administrators said the airline had run out of cash and the minister responsible for SAA criticised their efforts to rescue the company.

South African Airways (SAA) suspends flights until 31st May..................

South African Airways (SAA) has confirmed it will immediately suspend all international operations until 31 May 2020. It will also suspend all regional and domestic routes except Cape Town - Johannesburg for the same period.

The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting drop in demand and travel restrictions and attendant travel restrictions have made flying almost impossible for most airlines, with most carriers grounding aircraft and laying off staff. 

South African axes flights as financial woes deepen

The troubled South African Airways has been cancelling a large number of flights this week as it fights for survival.  According to Reuters, the airline has axed more than 20 domestic flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town and Durban this week as well as the scheduled operation to Munich in Germany.

SAA said it was “consolidating flights to match capacity and demand - These cancellations represent a responsible strategy to conserve cash,” and in a statement, it confirmed it would consider further schedule changes over the coming days as its financial troubles mount to what many see as inevitable - complete collapse. The airline promised to re-accommodate affected passengers on other flights.

The airline is running out of money, it had expected to receive some of the $137 million emergency funding from the government that was agreed on last month when the carrier went into bankruptcy protection, however, no money has yet been received.  Some Africa based aviation analysts believe that political opposition to the bailout funding will mount and the carrier will be forced to fold completely.

All options on the table for struggling South African Airlines

It has been reported that some intense discussions have been ongoing over the last few days between South African Airways (SAA) and its lenders in an effort to secure some much-needed rescue funds. 

The cash-strapped airline is looking to revise its operational and structural position as government ministers are contemplating pulling the plug on the loss-making carrier.  transition, the country’s public enterprises ministry said on Sunday.  SAA hasn't made a profit since 2011 and has been existing on government bailout after government bailout to just survive. Pravin Gordhan, of the South African Public Enterprises Ministry, has said the struggling state-owned airline could not continue in its present form, it needs “radical restructuring” to ensure financial and operational sustainability. “Over the past few days there have been intense discussions with lenders to secure the necessary funds to cover the operational and structural transition over the next few months,”.

South African Airlines cancels flights as employees plan strike over wages

The struggling South African Airways (SAA) has cancelled flights scheduled for Friday and Saturday because of a pending strike by a majority of employees over a wage dispute and the state-run carrier’s plans to cut jobs. The airline had hoped to avert the walkout with a revised wage offer but unions rejected it in talks on Thursday.

The airline is also without a permanent chief executive and has yet to file annual results for the two most recent financial years because of concerns about its viability as a business. Unions representing about 3,000 of its 5,000-member workforce said on Wednesday that cabin crew and other workers would strike over wages and plans to cut more than 900 jobs.

The carrier said on Wednesday it might never recover if the strike by the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), went ahead. It has said the strike would cost it an estimated 50 million rand ($3.36 million) a day.

SAA pilot had a fake licence and flew......for more than 20 years

Photo bellanaija

In an amazing tale of subterfuge, a South African Airways pilot has been forced to resign his position with the company after flying for the airline for more than 20 years on a fake pilots licence.

Amazingly the situation only came to light after a reportable incident occurred on a flight from Johannesburg to Frankfurt in Germany last year and was being investigated. During flight SA206 an incident occurred over the Swiss Alps while William Chandler, a senior first officer at the time was the 'pilot flying' the aircraft. The exact details of the incident have not yet been made public although are said to have included some bizarre and unusual aircraft movements. 

Whilst the flight was being investigated by officials at South Africa's leading airline, the financially troubled South African Airways, it discovered that William Chandler only had a commercial pilot's licence and not the required airline transport pilot licence (ATPL) for long-haul international flights.

Rolling over debt may keep South African Airways in the air!

Photo South African Airways

There could be light at the end of a long dark tunnel of financial difficulty for the national government-owned South African Airways after news emerged the firm was in talks with a number of lenders to effectively roll-over its mountain of debt!

The embattled airlines' Chief Financial Officer Deon Fredericks confirmed this week that the negotiations were ongoing with lenders regarding rolling over at least $650 million of debts, that are due in March.  The rollover would give the troubled airline some much-needed breathing space and keep the company flying.

Emirates and South African Airways to expand strategic partnership with enhanced codeshare agreement

Emirates, one of the world’s largest international airlines and South African Airways (SAA), the South African flag carrier, are expanding their strategic cooperation with enhancements to its codeshare agreement, opening up new destinations for both Emirates and SAA customers.

Pending governmental approval, SAA and Emirates have signed an enhanced commercial partnership which will see the relationship between the two carriers grow and strengthen their already successful codeshare agreement signed in 1997, across a wide spectrum of commercial and customer touch points.

Pictured above are delegates from Emirates and South African Airways at Emirates Headquarters from Left to right - Joydeep Sareen, UAE Country Manager - Sales, SAA; Anand Lakshminarayanan - SVP Revenue Optimisation; Peter Davies, Chief Restructuring Officer, SAA; Adnan Kazim – Divisional Senior Vice President Strategic Planning, RO & Aeropolitical Affairs, Emirates; Orhan Abbas - SVP - Commercial Operations (Africa) Emirates; T. G. Venugopal - SM Codeshare Cooperation, Emirates; Ben Leon, Office of the CRO, SAA.

“This agreement marks a significant forward step in the execution of our strategy and in transforming our business. It will enable us to explore and leverage synergies between ourselves in a much more enhanced relationship of mutual benefit. Our route network and that of Emirates complement one another. The expansion of our partnership will further strengthen key focus areas of the implementation of our turnaround plan,” says SAA CEO Vuyani Jarana.

“We remain deeply committed to our decades-long relationship with SAA, and the forthcoming expansion of our codeshare agreement is an exciting development and a significant milestone in our history in South Africa,” said Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline.

“We have seen great success with the codeshare agreement, having enabled greater connectivity to both SAA and Emirates customers, by offering more choice, flexibility and ease of connections to a wide range of cities via Dubai and across more points in Southern Africa. Increasing the scope of our agreement underpins the strong bonds we share with SAA and our belief that this enhanced partnership will enable further success and gain to the airlines and their customers”.

The future of airlines in South Africa looks set in mergers

The future of three state-owned airlines of South Africa looks stronger together as merger talks are started according to the minister of public enterprises. 

Pravin Gordhan told local media sources on Sunday that discussions regarding the merger of three government airlines,  SA Express, Mango and South African Airways had already started and would continue this week with other relevant ministers.

Mr Gordhan stated that was starting discussions this week with other departments, including the Treasury, with a view to evaluating the research work already completed by consulting firms as to the future of the airlines, "We must ask which areas we can rationalise, use one another’s resources,” he said.