South African Airways (SAA) and its partner airlines Mango and SA Airlink have put in place replacement capacity to support South African (SA) Express passengers.

This comes after the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) on Thursday suspended SA Express’ flights after an audit uncovered “severe cases of noncompliance that pose serious safety risks”.

“Our priority remains customer assistance in the best way possible to minimise the inconvenience caused by the suspension of SA Express services,” SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said in a statement on Friday.

“We have a recovery plan which was activated soon after the suspension of SA Express operations.”

SAA will rebook, reroute or refund passengers whose travel plans have changed owing to the suspension of SA Express flights.

Passengers on SA coded tickets and SA code share will be accommodated on a priority basis and SAA will, in accordance with its compensation policy, compensate all passengers where applicable.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, meanwhile, said the suspension of the airline was a classic example of the impact of corruption and malfeasance on the country’s national assets.

He said in a statement that the grounding of the airline was owing to consistent deterioration of the airline’s performance over the years that compromised the safety of the airline.

“This impact is informed by actions of the previous executive management that resulted in looting of resources without being held accountable during their tenure in the airline. SA Express remains a critical player in the economy in connecting smaller towns to the major economic hubs. An urgent recovery of the airlines is, therefore, critical to minimise the impact,” he said.

Gordhan has taken various steps over the past few weeks to radically change the way SA Express operates.

He has identified an intervention team to support the executive management until a permanent team can be appointed by the board and, in addition, a team of technical aviation experts has been identified that will address the challenges that have continued to undermine the operations of the airline.

Gordhan on Thursday announced the appointment of a new board of directors for SA Express, led by Tryphosa Ramano.

The other members of the new board are Ronald Ozzy Lamola, Thulani Matiki Norman Kgomo, Thandiwe January-McLean, Kugan Harikrishna Thaver, Bongisiwe Mpondo, Hlengiwe Thandeka Makhathini, Thabi Leoka and Ahmed Ismail Bassa.