NLU you make a well reasoned post, though I remain totally unconvinced, I'd go with JCO7 on this one. And of course my opinion is incredibly valuable in the aviation industry. /sarcasm
Originally Posted by NextLegUndefined
inefficient (old) aircraft
I'm going to genuinely go WTF and ask for some education as to which aircraft SAA has which are old and inefficient. Seriously? (I have my serious question face on now) Maybe you meant to say 'not brand new'. The A342's were a bit sucky, sure, but aren't they going/gone? Otherwise you've got reasonably decent aircraft all round surely, decent enough to work with at least?
I entered that into my electronic dictionary and it made a smiley face
Also, the whole idea of 'strategic importance'. It's a bit of a nebulous concept really. Do you mean to say that tourists somehow wouldn't be able to fly here if SAA were to vanish? Or that business/diplomatic ties would somehow become untenable without SAA? If there's money to be made on the route, somebody will fly it. It doesn't have to be SAA, or even an SA company really, much though we might like it to be. We'll just have to face the fact that the SA government has removed SA's ability to compete with the big boys, by virtue of being incredibly dumb and short-sighted maybe?
The cost factors (Heathrow, fuel etc) you mention apply to ALL long haul operators - they need to make a plan, so does SAA. Preferably without involving yet another bailout. Emirates has massive backing, sure - are you saying that it's basically a question of 'do we go head to head with Emirates'? (Because it seems like SAA might lose that one, so let's not reinforce failure IMHO)
SA law prevents foreign carriers from operating domestically, so at least we'll have that. Yet SAA stifles competitive, sustainable growth there too. By the time we've all finished fighting over the scraps, we'll be weaker than ever.
Anyway. I think the horse might be dead now. Also, I get the distinct impression that our opinions on the matter are irrelevant.
Nice quote SRT. The more things change....