Jumbo mouse, sorry, you must be using a different list to mine!
Banoi, the purchase is not so much just the airline, but the licence to operate. If SAA buy Sunair, then the Sunair licence goes to SAA. If anyone else wants to now operate, they have to go the whole hog of applying for a new licence, which, financially is not too much of a problem, but can be dragged out for quite a while. So, by buying Sunair, and then closing it, SAA have effectively delayed Virgin,or any others, from buying a ready made and immediately operable entity.
While I feel for the pilots, and the anger they feel at SAA not recruiting them straight away, as with other staff, the reality is that SAA already has enough pilots, besides, many Sunair pilots had been interviewed by SAA in the past, but ended up working for another airline. It's a pity, but one FO salary will pay 9 FA salaries, and we need FAs, not FOs.
Again, that's only my opinion, if I"m still allowed to have one on this forum!