Photo by: Reuters
The Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) for State-owned national flag carrier South African Airways (SAA) announced major changes to the airline’s route network on Thursday. “In line with SAA’s commitment to conserve cash, and create a viable platform for a successful future, key measures need to be implemented now,” they stated in their media release.
Domestically, SAA will cease all operations to all destinations except Cape Town, with effect from February 29. The destinations that the airline will no longer serve include Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth. And the number of services to Cape Town will be reduced.
Services by the SAA group’s low cost subsidiary, Mango, will not be affected. Indeed, passengers affected by the termination of SAA domestic schedules will be re-accommodated on Mango flights.
Regarding regional and international flights, SAA operations from Johannesburg to Abidjan (via Accra), Entebbe, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Livingston, Luanda, Munich, Ndola and São Paulo will be terminated, also from February 29. All passengers booked on these cancelled regional and international flights will receive full refunds.
SAA is retaining the following regional routes – Johannesburg to Blantyre, Dar es Salaam, Harare, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lilongwe, Lusaka, Maputo, Mauritius, Nairobi, Victoria Falls and Windhoek. The international services that are being kept are Johannesburg to Frankfurt, London, New York, Perth and Washington (via Accra).
“SAA does not intend to make any further significant network changes,” said the media release. “Passengers and travel agents can therefore feel confident about booking future travel with South African Airways. The flight schedule for February remains unchanged.”
The BRPs also reported that rationalisation programmes were being considered for SAA’s subsidiaries, as well as “viable investment opportunities”, with possible investors, regarding SAA. They also gave the assurance that they were making “every effort” to minimise job losses at SAA and its subsidiaries; however, they warned that there would be job losses.