The humble airline meal could be one of the first things to get the boot as South African Express attempts to recover from a massive R206-million net loss.
The airline‚ which last year requested a government guarantee to secure a loan‚ presented its 2013/14 financial statements several months late due to uncertainty around its ability to function as a going concern.
Parliament on Wednesday heard that the airline had recorded a net loss of R206-million in the 2014 financial year‚ and R62-million loss in the restated 2013 financial year.
It recorded an 11.5% revenue increase to R2.6-billion but carried 52 000 fewer passengers in 2014 than it did the previous year.
CEO of the airline Inathi Ntshangana told Parliament that it had devised cost-cutting measures which could save it around R297-million annually - effectively making it profitable again.
Among the plans were revised catering and menus.
“Internationally‚ if you fly less than two hours‚ you are not likely to get food. You get water and coke from a two-litre bottle and maybe some pretzels or something like that. Maybe those are some of the things we now need to introduce - things that are healthier but still smaller.”
He said revising menus had saved the airline around R20-million.
Other cost-cutting measures included cutting training and conference participation for their corporate staff as well as dropping the per diem paid to staff members travelling overseas.
He said in some companies‚ the per diem was as much as $150 per day‚ while its had been $90 and was likely to drop even further.
The airline had also saved R11-million by handling its own baggage in Johannesburg‚ rather than outsourcing.
It has also cut longer and unprofitable routes such as Cape Town to Maputo and Cape Town to Windhoek.
Democratic Alliance MP Natasha Mazzone said two planes in Port Elizabeth reported failures as hundreds of DA delegates were trying to leave the city after their congress over the weekend but the airline said maintenance on their its planes was non-neogitable.
Ntshangana said “the pilots are like kings. If there is a light showing or a problem and they don’t want to fly‚ we don’t fly”.
Both he and acting board chair Bridget Ssamula said that while some of their planes were 15 years old‚ this was not a safety issue.
“The problem with older planes is just that the maintenance costs more‚” he said.
The airline currently spends between 12% and 15% of its budget on maintenance.