There is absolutely no future in SAA launching its own LLC arm- they have done the analysis and shown that its cheaper to use the existing fleet to compete with the LLC's. By definition these carriers have a very small cost base - hence their competitive fares- a slick paint job is not going to make SAA's cost base dissapear! the sad thing about SAA is that no one will be prepared to make the sacrifices nessesary to make the thing work- ie take pay cuts, agree to a change in working conditions etc etc- and Im not just taking about the chief and his millions but everyone- SAA pays very well across the board and generally speaking does not derive the reqired benefit in terms of productivity- Im speaking generally here, of course there are exceptions.
If you want to see SAA work- it has to start with the people, so why not close it down and restart it as a new public/private partnership ask everyone to reapply for their jobs and offer the successful ones performance based contracts- that are renewable if you perfrom to expectations. This worked in a slightly altered format at Air Lingus who have managed to bring themselves back form the brink.
The outlook is simplistic I know,but essentially SAA has all the fundamantal elements already in place to be a really sucessful airline- domestically and regionally/Internationaly, whats needed is the people side to come right and then things will start to happen.