SAA business rescuers seek more time for turn around

Business rescuers for South Africa’s national carrier SAA have asked the government and key stakeholders for more time to turn around the airline, which has been experiencing financial peril for the last few months.

The airline has been plagued by management issues, old aircraft (notably Airbus A340 aircraft it uses to fly long-haul international routes) and aggressive expansion by rivals.

Partners Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana have asked the government for further extensions regarding their turnaround plan. The duo has run into several problems actioning their revitalisation strategy of the airline, such as union disputes (being forced to retain expensive engineers) and even the government withholding funds.

The latest deferral is very much due to outside forces plaguing the industry, with very limited travel options for the airline to make money outside of South Africa. The airline has been restricted from operating regional African routes and international routes to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, forcing most services to be grounded and just be operating limited domestic capacity.