SAA 'is on verge of bankruptcy'

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Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 83 total)

  • LuganoPirate
    Participant

    The tragedy Canucklad, and maybe Capetonian will agree, is that the ANC hierarchy exist for themselves. Keep the ordinary black man poor and uneducated, milk the institutions and blame the whites for everything. Never mind tomorrow’s generation, just put as much money in the bank today as you can is their attitude.

    It’s an absolute tragedy as the ordinary folk cry out for an education for their kids but it’s so often denied them for political reasons. Consequently as the skilled white is pushed out, even in a training role, and unskilled and uneducated blacks are put into their place who only got the job thanks to family political connections, and the result is chaos and inefficiency on an unimaginable scale.


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    Canucklad – Kenya Airways has changed over the years.

    It’s so short of cash that it sold its one and only LHR slot for the record price of US$75 million to Oman Air.

    The LHR slot which Kenya Airways now uses is leased from KLM.

    It has now hired a new CEO from the Polish airline LOT. Previous CEO Mbuvi Ngunze ‘announced his resignation last November after a staff rebellion triggered by the slow pace of reform at the lossmaking airline.’

    https://www.ft.com/content/7b49396b-bd05-3d7d-a6c9-98b791a07a13


    capetonianm
    Participant

    Spot on, LP, something I feel very strongly about, and I will expand later when I have time, but just off to the cinema now to see ‘Dunkirk’.


    PeterCoultas
    Participant

    A pity that SAA execs won’t read Lugano P’s post…what is good and what needs to be changed….


    SimonS1
    Participant

    Nearly everything about South Africa is in the basket case bracket these days.

    Like most parastatals SAA suffers from incompetent management and is run for political purposes. So like many African airlines it means giving SAA a wide berth. Their loss is ComAir’s gain really.

    Connecting through OR Tambo is a pretty morbid experience too. Miserable staff and long queues due to unmanned desks. I suppose Tony Gupta is probably too busy fighting other fires at present to approve the President’s request for extra staff……

    Sad as it is a lovely country but from a business perspective it’s increasingly a waste of time.


    maxgeorge
    Participant

    That’s a bit unkind, Mr S.

    “Basket Case” aptly describes much of the governance, and no doubt doing business would be a wearying matter of bureaucracy and backhanders, but for tourism South Africa can be a delight.

    Nowhere else in Africa, except Namibia, can a visitor be cruising smooth freeways through superb scenery to dine well in a good hotel and not at times wonder whether he’s in Spain or Australia.

    Except for the zebras.

    And a favourable exchange rate.


    capetonianm
    Participant

    As LP says, the ANC is keeping the majority poor and ignorant in order to achieve its own aims. Somewhat worse than the Nats did, since the infrastructure that the whites put in place has now crumbled and most blacks are worse off now than they were under Apartheid, with more crime, violence, and corruption, and less policing, housing education, and health care.

    They can of course reel off crap about how many tens of thousands of houses they’ve built since 1994, but four concrete walls with a tin roof hardly constitutes a house, particularly when it lacks amenities.

    The ANC has deceived and betrayed the people it promised to help, the ‘previously disadvantaged’ who are now more disadvantaged than ever before. Illegal aliens are flooding into the country and taking employment opportunities away from the locals, who don’t really want to work very hard anyway, and can’t work smart as they are uneducated.

    Don’t even get me started about the Chinese ……… they will make colonialism and Apartheid look like a vicar’s tea party.

    Back to SAA, the governmunt see the (white) taxpayers as an inexhaustible source of funding, but as Ian Smith said, ‘so far and no further’, sooner or later there will be a revolt, or the wealthy will leave, or find ways to avoid paying tax to fund Zuma and his vile henchmen.


    Flightlevel
    Participant

    Sad that a once great airline is going the way of AZ for similar reasons and perhaps ANC once a liberator now means African Nepotism and Corruption?


    Alex McWhirter
    Participant

    “SAA in far deeper trouble”

    It’s reported today in a local business publication that SAA’s losses are worse than what was first thought.

    The auditor general says that SAA’s losses in 2017 were R5.5 billion. In 2016 the losses were R1.47 billion.

    https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/saa-in-far-deeper-trouble-13670626


    capetonianm
    Participant

    It makes sad reading but unsurprising when you consider who was (supposedly) in charge at the airline until recently, and by whom she was appointed and why,
    (For those who need a reminder, Dodo Myeni and Jacob Zuma, bedbuddies).

    The airline was used as the ANC’s private air taxi service for the benefit of cronies and their families and friends. Seats in premium were filled by nonrevenue pax and senior appointments were made on the basis of racial discrimination (no whites) and grace and favour.

    Dodo and Zuma have gone and it will take a lot for the new President to straighten things out at the parastatals, assumimg that he has the will and the means to do so. SAA has been a lost cause for many years (pre 1994 too) but is now in a death spiral.

    With only one flight a day now between JNB and LHR (BA have up to 6 flights a day in and out of the country) it would be not be hard for them to fill the aircraft, but whether they will fill it profitably is unlikely.


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    Part of the problem is also the massive over staffing of the airline with many personnel sitting round doing nothing or taking sick leave. It’s almost impossible to fire them and cronyism was at its height.

    The best solution I think is to sort out the balance sheet, make redundancies and then privatise the airline.


    capetonianm
    Participant

    the massive over staffing of the airline with many personnel sitting round doing nothing or taking sick leave.

    The sense of entitlement which is illustrated by this fact is beyond belief. A few years ago I did some contract work for them at Airways Park (their head office.) The then CEO, Khaya Nquala (sp?), on the odd days when he deigned to come to work, came by helicopter from Sandton. This was just after the Coleman Andrews days. I sat in at a meeting at which Nquala was present, and he slept, picked his nose, and yawned through most of it and contributed nothing. I doubt if he even knew or cared what was going on.

    Many of the people I worked with were older white men who were just cruising along doing the barest minimum and waiting for retirement. Most of the younger blacks on the other hand were hardworking and enthusiastic, but that was about 12 years ago.

    It was, and remains, a national disgrace and embarrassment.


    rferguson
    Participant

    It seems the latest plan is to shrink themselves to profitability. Plans on cutting more unprofitable routes and transferring the spare aircraft to profit making Mango. I’m guessing the routes to be axed will be those using the 737’s as I doubt Mango has much use for a 330/340 (though who knows?).

    Anyway, the aim is to break even within three years. Let’s see!

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-12/south-african-airways-to-scale-back-in-three-year-break-even-bid


    openfly
    Participant

    What has happened to the R18b they have been “given” over the last year by the SA government? Probably lots of new houses in Switzerland!


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    They’ve also got a couple of AVRO jets. As for the 330/340I guess Mango could use it on the CPT – JNB route in summer when there is a very big demand. Also seasonal is the JNB – George route, used by many tourists and always full in summer. Not sure if GRJ can handle a jet that size though with just a 6,500′ runway?

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