Fluffyfan,
The age of an entity does not give it a right to exist.
In nature, the older you are, the closer to death you get.
It's the old thing about addapt or die. SAA has shown over the last 15 years that they cannot addapt. The bussiness is a dinosour and if it doesn't change, and I mean drastically, it must go extinct.
If you read my posts again you'll see, I think the SAA pilots are compensated rightly. If you take the environment they live and work into acount, I'll even say they're
underpaid.
BUT. SAA cannot pay those sallaries.
SAA a world leader?!! Don't make me laugh! If they are well run they can at best be a good regional airline. SA isn't located geographically to be a through-hub like Dubai, and the population is too small for the country to be a major central-hub.
Talking about Emirates.
They isue a far more complete set of results every year (on time mind you), than any SAA ever cooked up.
Even though they are privately owned and do not have to isue ANY results.
Go have a look here:
http://www.ekgroup.com/AnnualReports/Index.asp