"I am NOT gonna argue the merits of trying to create 'newly advantaged', but the fact still remains that SAA is a bottomless pit. SAA can't up the revenue side of the equation, so it has to focus on the costs. Its very hard to make fuel any cheaper, aircraft leases are an internationally set cost."
Av8tor, I have no wish to enter into a mud-slinging match, or any other match for that matter, with you. I am simply excersizing my constitutionally guarenteed right to a free opinion. You make some interesting comments, so here are my comments on them. You dont need to argue the merits, its plain to see. All departments might be facing the chop but the "Glamour" department ie the one the politicians like to see their sons and cronies in, is the pilot pool. I did not intend this to be a political discussion, I was simply stating the obvious.
Please explain, why can't SAA up the revenue side? You can only push the cost issue to a point. Then you have to get positive and show some movement on the revenue side. Ideally, a company should always be watching costs while concentrating on improving revenues. There-in lies the problem with SAA. They have always seen the tax-payers as a bottomless pit and they have been careless with expenditure. Now they want to blame employees for this and expect them to take wholesale cuts while the cost of living is soaring. I guarentee you Khaya will not be taking any cut in salary. When he was asked on 702 a while ago about this issue, he ducked the issue and said his contract is in place and he will be paid according to this. Well, the pilots contracts and everybody elses contracts are also in place. Why should they be making the concessions when he clearly wont?
Fuel is a problem, I will concede that. But every other airline is faced with this same problem.
Surely, with an unstable currency like the ZAR it does not make sense to lease aircraft? Earning in Rands and spending in USD is a bad wicket to be batting on. There is nothing you can do to control currency fluctuations and life then becomes a gamble at best. Buy the aircraft when the currency is strong and selling them or even leasing to others when the currency is weaker makes a whole lot more sense.