SAA asks for a R6-billion handout
 

From news24.com

"Johannesburg - South African Airways (SAA) has asked the government for a recapitalisation of about R6bn to fund operational costs, growth strategy and fleet renewal, according to a report on Wednesday.

The requested funds would be in addition to the R1.3bn subordinated loan SAA already had from the government, Business Day reported.

It also included the company's R1.6bn "going concern" guarantee it obtained to underpin its money requirements after the auditor general raised concern last year about its ability to generate cash to fund operations.

"This year we will have to go through the same process and the guarantee required will probably be higher," SAA chief financial officer Wolf Meyer was quoted as saying. He was addressing parliament's public enterprises committee on Tuesday.

Meyer said SAA's weak balance sheet would also have to be fixed if it was going to finance growth and fleet renewal, the newspaper reported."


***

I have to say, I really do not see how the HELL the SAA pilots can justify their inflated salaries and R100k+ bonuses. If your company is not making money, time to cut costs, streamline it and make it more efficient, not run to the bloody government every year with your begging bowl.

What makes it all stick in the craw even more is the arrogant attitude of, well, hell, let me just call a spade a spade and say MOST of the pilots there.
If I worked there, for a company that cannot turn a profit even though it has a virtual monopoly, quite frankly I would be ashamed to try and justify my salary.

What a crock of :mad: Bah.

I guess the new M.D. is no better.

How much did Comair ask for again....???;) Someone has got it right!

JG1, you are one angry, frustrated and sad individual. :{

JG1 this is not a bail out at all but a recapitilastion in order for the airline to grow in order to expand SAA's network.

Just a little something from the CEO:
" I would like to state, once again, that this is not the case. Our airline does not need a bail out.
I re-iterate that SAA has never been properly capitalised over the past few years, and it is important that our airline is adequately capitalised to support its bold growth strategy for the next five years.
Airlines all across the globe are performing under pressure due to volatile fuel prices, low demand for air travel and increased competition on key routes. The capitalisation of our airline is linked to the growth strategy and fleet programme and is not a bail out."

So as a proud SAA pilot and one that is not ashamed to receive my salary or bonus for that matter that may come my way...get off your high horse, stop slagging something you know nothing about.....and go "bah bah baaaaaaaaaaaaaah" together with the so many sheep that ply these forums and that continually bash SAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:ugh::ugh:

That's as I understand it from a recent dinner party conversation. Fleet renewal was the main reason behind the budget request as I recall and I thought it was a ten year re-equipment plan with the fervent hope expressed that airways would go for Boeing.
SAA flight crew salaries are well up on the top end of the international pay scale for pilots. Of course they're grossly overpaid but then look at the sort of places in which they have to night stop.As if London isn't already a disgusting destination full of foreign devils, they're soon to have five days in Beijing and that means they'll have to look down at their toes and not at the sky as they walk, lest they trip on the saliva laden sidewalks of the ancient city of duck worshippers.
Meanwhile, up near Bela Bela last week, another rhinoceros was slaughtered for its horn, this time by an opportunist drive by assassin who hopped over the game fence to hack off the horn before escaping down the road in his bakkie. The apocryphal aphrodisiac is quite possibly awaiting inaugural transportation to ZBAA at this very moment.

They even believe their own propaganda...!!! (Normal airline have to approach investors for loans for fleet expansion, don't they? Must be nice having willing taxpayers to bail you out!!)

....yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
You must be the head of the bah bah brigade ...if you're just south of the Black Sheep brewery then Trossie?????

I have to admit that it is unfair in many ways. When a private airline needs recapitalisation they have to go through a rigorous process to get the cash.

However , SAA needs to continue being an employment arm of the government just like Eskom , Denel , Transnet etc
Private carriers don't have that issue to deal with.

Mind you though, one has to feel dreadfully sorry for the SAA company ethos. Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa, was so unimpressed with the standards of maintenance and quality control in the airline recently that he felt it necessary on a flight to the USA last month to have two back up aircraft along for the ride. This was a gross traducement by applied innuendo of the high standards of SAA and Mr Zuma has done nothing other than to make himself appear ridiculous whilst demeaning the national flag carrier in the process.

Its a bailout yet again, they are just trying to sugar coat it in the hope they miight avoid the standand public outcry that the states aviation black hole is hungry again.

It won't expand, already the average discerning traveller avoids it like the plague. Whats the point of flying more empty seats around? The airline sucks, the service is disgusting, the standards are collapsing. Its truly no better than Transnet, from where it came and what its again being compared to.

So lets hear it from all the 'proud' SAA pilots. Why not tell us how we are all just jealous because we aren't part of your statefunded cool-kids-club.:bored:. Seems your standard line when your thieving management is standing at SARS with the well used begging bowl.

Believe me guys, you get the respect you deserve. Its just that its not the respect you expect.

Happy flying, look forward to subsidising your Benoni lifestyle with my next tax return.

Being in Fort Lauderdale you obviously haven't flown our "proud" airline in a while. Take a trip and you might be pleasantly surprised. You don't make a profit by the way in the last financial year by passengers avoiding it like the plague and 'empty seats?'. That's also something of a rarity.
So come on down and see for yourself!

Cavortingcheetah, great post considering that the SAAF chartered an SAA A340 as one of the backup aircraft and his family travelled on SAA to New York. Zuma travelled in the SAAF BBJ.

Fuzzy, you must be mates with JG1. Did you guys meet at the same "South African pilots who were rejected by SAA" support group meeting?

Thanks for being Proudly South African :ok:

This "proudly South African" :mad: amuses me... Proud of what? Your 'armed response burglar alarm' industry??!!

SAA... that's the bunch that had two entire crews arrested at LHR some time back, isn't it?

Tell you what: a 6 billion 'any currency' "re-capitalisation" is a bail-out in any normal language!! (Ask the Scottish banks. And are the SA tax-payers asking as many searching questions as the tax-payers that had to bail out the Scottish banks?? Doubt it though, they all get hearded like sheep in SA and believe the party line! How does it go: "bah bah"!!!)

Beechbum: stop lying around on that beach pretending to be a pilot and try some of that Black Sheep; it has real taste, unlike that Castle cats' pee!!!

Back to SAA: maybe they need that bail-out to be able to opperate those routes to China to be able to carry all those money bags for the politburo...?

They must have got their financial advise from "Lehman Brothers" !!!!

It's a pity actually that an individual who lives near or the to the south of Yorkshire has the audacity to comment on something he obviously knows nothing about.
As for lying on the beach Trossie, at least I can because it's nice and warm here and I ain't freezing my :mad: off in some poxy English pub on the mud island! :yuk:
But for once I agree with you,Castle is a bit like the yellow stuff hence the reason I lie on the beach and consume other fine nectar. Oh and it's nice and warm here....................not the beer that is!!
Oh yes I never pretend to be a pilot that's far too arrogant ......:cool:
Now where were we before Trossie interrupted us........:ugh::hmm:

Bailout!!:= I repeat it is a bailout SAA is a unproductive government pot that just boils away tax payer money. Everybody in the world can see it except those that do not want to see it. How much did Comair get? how much did One time get?

SAA is not the only airline in the world that is being backed up financially by its parent state. However SAA has shown, for the first time in a very, very long time, that it may be turning a corner in its ability to turn a profit, but isn't quite there without the help of the tax payer, yet. The RSA government also applies various 'strategic' and politically motivated demands on the airline to service routes that the airline would like to give up. The same goes for some of its staff and departments.

This is not the United States of America where a deregulated, private airline industry rides the waves of the economy, without state assistance.

This is South Africa.

This is also PPRUNE, not a political or economic debating forum. Start a rumour about sub-standard training or unsafe flight operations at SAA and then at least the debate will be informative and interesting, albeit cut short by fact.

What is it, Beechbum? A “recapitilastion”? Yup, you are right there, it’s a recapitulation. Back to SARS for more cash because you’ve squandered the last lot you were given.

Angry and frustrated, jbay? Sure, because MORE of my money is going your way to fund your unearned lifestyle .. and guess what? I’m paying, so I get to be allowed to be. Blow me. Sad ? That the same old posters like yourself trot out the same old lines…’jealous, rejected by SAA, waa, waa, bullsh1t..’ ? Next time you sign on with your untouchable captain/PDI first officer and your beetle-like size-67-assed flight attendants who define inefficiency, spare a thought for those of us who are sadly and jealously pining away smilingly elsewhere at airlines who can proudly say they are standing on their own two feet and making it, as opposed to slavishly defending a tottering, inefficient, bungling, inept parastatal that’s effectively on a par with the SABC in terms of credibility.

It’s a bailout. When other companies need to buy new equipment, they have usually foreseen the need for some time, BUDGETED for it (look that word up, jy-pay & beechbutt), and have carefully applied policies which result in there being enough capital, or creditworthiness, to acquire the aforementioned equipment.

Whatever you want to call it, it’s yet another cash injection from us to you, so be good enough to be grateful and say thank you next time you pass by on the apron. In fact, change your callsign to ‘Thankyou261 Heavy’:E Better than 'Bringbuck'...:}

+1 JG1

I am against any form of state competition against private business in a market related economy. SAA is like any other state enterprise: a bottomless hole with regards to money. State organisations do not have a motive for making profit: public health, police, rail transport etc. only exist to deliver a service, not to make profit. SAA seems no different. Privatise the airline, see how it fares when the competition and survival motivators drive it forward. If they struggle to compete with Emirates, that is not my concern and completely irrelevant: I do not wish to pay out of my pocket so that our "National Flag Carrier" can try to compete against an airline that has them trumped on every count in the market. If it cannot survive on its own, it doesn't deserve to survive: my own employer included.

JG1, we each get one life and need to make the most of it. I personally don't give a :mad: where SAA gets its money or what the company does to keep operating. Your airline / company is not, as previously mentioned in a post above, saddled with political interference and biased / EE hiring policies.

While SA is a third world country being run by a bunch of thieves, one either rides the wave or gets left behind.

So next time you pass me on the apron, I'll "just smile and wave".

Here's some food for thought:

"armed response burglar alarm industry"

What a silly, sad little man. Shame old chap, where did it all go wrong for you?

Blah,blah,blah,blah!

Here come a GREAT BIG WOODEN SPOON:

divinehover "..."armed response burglar alarm industry"

What a silly, sad little man. Shame old chap, where did it all go wrong for you? "

It hasn't gone wrong here, but I have been saddened to see how wrong it has gone for all the friends and family who have had to retreat behind the bars and barriers of their armed response burglar alarms there... It's actually gone very well here!!!

beechbum (and by the way, 'beech' is wood, or 'hout', not a stretch of sand!) well done with the 'Google', pity your geography's not quite up to scratch though! And we have a marvellous local pub (that serves 'Black Sheep'!) with a beautiful beer-garden; it's very pleasant walking back from it, even on a dark winter's night, without the fear of being mugged or run down on the road... and then we don't even have a closed gate when we get home and don't have to worry about disabling that 'armed response burglar alarm'!! Have fun in your 'Gangsters Paradise'!!!

Now, back to the topic: there's been a lot of talk of the problems in Greece; 'recapitalisation' and 'bail-out' are used almost as interchangealble terms. Like-wise with SAA, the 'party line' is that it is 'recapitalisation' while to the real world it is a 'bail-out'. With proper commercial airlines there has to be a proper business plan that involves planned investment, etc. Hand-outs from taxpayers is seen, in those circles, as a sign of failure and with more enlightened taxpayers a lot of questions get asked!! And there has been mention in this thread about SAA pilots getting 'bonuses'... Aren't the SA taxpayers going to be asking some searching questions about those bonuses being paid to a 'business' that is in need of such a large taxpayer-funded bail-out? I somehow doubt it. As has been said above, that is just the way it is in SA. The 'party line' always wins out against business logic and the taxpayer is loaded up even more and more with the tab. That wealth-creating taxpayer's "camel's back" is going to snap sometime and the whole house of cards will come tumbling down. Enjoy your flying at that airline that seems to be a 'money black hole' while you can, if your conscience doesn't make you worry about your burden on those taxpayers. But then the taxpayers there will probably just give in like sheep to the party line going 'bah, bah, bah' all the way!

It must be so difficult for other airlines to compete in such a 'state distorted' business environment. But then maybe it isn't so difficult if you can compete on service and win your customers that way! (I saw a report some time ago about SAA having a 77% increase in profits. It's like a comment that I heard many years ago about the HNP having a 50% increase in their votes... "If you start with 2 matches and you've now got 3, that's a 50% increase, but it still means that you've still only got 3 matches"! 77% isn't difficult if you start from a low number!!)

Those SAA crews arrested at LHR did cause quite a few humourous comments like, watching an SAA A340 taxy in: "Do you think that the crew are going straight to the hotel, or stopping at the police station on the way?"!!

Now don't try that old "you're not here so you don't know what you're talking about" bleat: it's as old and irrelevant as the ossewa!!!

Can't quite imagine who in their right minds would want to walk, or slither and slide, along a dark wintery country road in Britain? They're always either wet or icy and full of pot holes. Perhaps though, a sensible precaution if you're too drunk to drive. Down here you still can drive drunk. The place is over populated anyway and you can see off the cops with a few buffaloes. But then if I lived in Britain I'd need to be inebriated. What else would there be to spend my benefit hand outs on apart from cigars? As for things going well in that part of Europe, it's a bit like mediocrity and the parable of the burnt matches. It's not as bad as those inside the country think it could be looking at their Greek cousins but the deterioration and corruption on the inside is noticeable to those on the outside looking in.
Anyway back to the topic and away from an insignificant little socialist island to the powerhouse of Africa and its quasi benevolent dictatorship.
South Africa thinks it should have and can afford a national airline. It's the privilege of rich nations to be able to waste their money how they will. Those nations who cannot even afford a train set should just be thankful that SAA, in being as dreadful as it is from a passenger point of view, might encourage people to desert to travel on other carriers such as BA and Virgin, ghastly and strike prone as they might be, thus enriching the coffers of those whose Olympic ideas of grandeur are on the point of discovering disaster.

Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen!

You are sadly missing the point, and I am not even going to comment on the "we can at least drive drunk here" bit. I hope that was meant sarcastically.

Firstoff, this country's economy is growing at maybe 3% per annum, and has been known to shrink once in a while too, with various pieces of legistlation (the labour law, the new companies act, etc.) severly inhibiting the ability of the economy to grow.
We will be squeezed with higher fuel prices, fuel levies, toll roads and taxes...many of these funds embezzled by the government or spent to keep the welfare state going.

SAA will survive only as long as taxes are pumped into it. If it doesn't undergo a serious revamp with regards to management (style, ability, qualifications, amount) and staff, as well as equipment and assets and operations, it will not last forever. There is no justification on my tax money spent on this white elephant! Give me better roads, better policing, invest it in infrastructure, give me a tax break even FFS, but don't waste it on a "National Carrier"!

Sense and logic do not often prevail in this supposed "Powerhouse of Africa", that in itself being an oxymoron, just look at our GDP per Capita ($10,100) and compare it with Italy ($30,300)...we are not a powerhouse! We cannot afford these costly luxuries until this country has economic growth, and that is what this entire debate should really be about!

I'll reword that for you, with the same meaning: 'I don't give a **** that we've taken some of your money against your will to prop up our company.' Epic moral failure, but anyway...

Yes, it is. I can't see how you could even say that with a straight face. Assuming I could see your face. Which I can't. But I'll assume it was straight.

Reword again: 'All that stuff that we hate about third world graft, corruption, incompetence etc is irrelevant, as long as I'm the one on top :)'

Your food for thought was not very nutritious - I'll add some protein supplements:
1) You don't get it: YOU'RE the poor! Stop taking OUR money!

2) Yeah - WE'VE worked for our money, stop receiving it without working properly. MY airline partially funds YOUR airline via taxation, despite being a direct competitor!

3) Again - The government has TAKEN from my airline, a wealth generator, which has to get all super-lean and efficient or DIE, to GIVE to your airline, which is all bloated and useless and on constant life support.

4) So stop dividing my companies profits FFS!

5) YOU'VE gotten the idea that you don't need to work efficiently and can earn non-market related salaries, because WE (taxpaying entities) take care of you! We slave on, despite your voracious appetite for cash that you didn't earn, which comes from us! Thanks.

I'm not sure if you intended to unload the equivalent of a 12G into each foot with your post, but you did succeed. Or, epic troll, well done. I heard a friend say once that you guys are like those government ministers who buy ultra luxury vehicles - sure, the rule book allows them to do it - but it doesn't make it any less morally reprehensible. It was a good analogy IMHO.

I always enjoy the SAA posts, they do liven the place up, thanks.

Shrike200, my point exactly.

Look, it's not your fault that you work for SAA, and I can understand that it is a bit of an emotional sore point to be told that your (very lucrative) employer should either be sold off or shut down, but in the bigger picture it is what is best for this country: a small step in the right direction.

You don't have to like the idea at all, hence why you tell us that your training standards are so fantastic: a point I cannot contest, but sadly an irrelevant point once again. An airline doesn't become financially viable only because its crews are well trained.

Please do not attempt to defend the indefensible by referring to jealousy, lack of ambition etc. Those statements do not change the facts, which happen to be that SAA is a parastatal disaster sucking my tax money like so many other government departments, without actually giving me any service. I have to spend some more money to get that...which is kind of rich since I have paid for it already.

There is only one sensible solution for any state owned airline.
Privatise it. Sell it off to private enterprise and let it sink or swim in the real world. If it is as good as many claim it will become a thriving business.

Any state owned business becomes an inefficient job creation scheme, in private hands it has to operate efficiently and make a profit.

Hook, line and sinker ;)

I included that to cover all bases already. Not that it was the original base, IMHO. 'Just kidding guys', lame :)

cavorting... " ...to walk, or slither and slide, along a dark wintery country road in Britain?" You've obviously throughly enjoyed the beers every time you've visited, haven't you??!!! Try walking on those roads a bit less 'tiddley' next time!!

"...and full of pot holes." Too much beer again: that was the fields that you were walking through... you'd missed the roads!!

"Down here you still can drive drunk." Hmmm... that'll explain the annual slaughter rate on the roads there!!

Several of the contributors above have got it spot on: it would be much, much better for the taxpayers there if their money was spent on things that improved their lives (like fixing those many, many pot-holes, some massive road saftey and crime prevention efforts, etc., etc.) rather than pouring that money down a bottomless pit like a state-owned airline. No real airline should be state-owned. And having high training standards is irrelevant if the airline doesn't have any rational business plan: I have known of many pilots working for airlines with good training standards that have ended up out of work as their airline went bust (that doesn't mean that good training standards are incompattible with good business as those doing well in business usually have amongst the highest training standards).

And this mindless 'proudly xyz' shows a shallow thought process. If you want to be proud of something then quantify it: I spoke to a pilot a few years ago who put it perfectly, saying "I'm proud to work for AB, but not proud of AB" (jumble those letters as you feel fit!).

So come on, get a taxpayers' revolt going and get that money better spent and give the business-minded airlines there a fair chance...

STAR Alliance Facts
 

The unfortunate history of Star Alliance subsidies

Airline Government funding
Adria Airways Lost €3.2 million in 2008 and €13.9 million in 2009, both absorbed by the Slovenian government. Sought a €50 million
capital injection in 2010, half of which has been received.
Aegean Attempted merger with Olympic Air blocked in 2011 by the European Commission due to competition concerns. Olympic
Air was the successor to Olympic Airlines, which received over €700 million in illegal state aid.
Air Canada CA$250 million loan from the government-owned Export Development Corporation in 2009, of which CAD$100 million
was from a special cabinet-controlled EDC account.
Air New Zealand NZ$885 million capital injection in 2001.
Asiana Debt of KRW3.76 trillion to state-owned Korea Development Bank was frozen in January 2010.
Austrian Airlines €500 million in state aid from the Austrian Government to cancel debts prior to September 2009 takeover by Lufthansa –
on the back of a €200 million loan from the Austrian Government.
Brussels Airlines Loan of €125 million SN Airholding (stakeholder in SN Brussels Airlines) granted from Federal Investment Company in 2002.
Croatia Airlines 195 million Croatian Kuna in state aid between 2007 and 2009.
Lufthansa €800 million German Government contribution to Lufthansa pension fund in 1995.
SAS Sought a new capital injection of SEK 4-5 billion, half of which comes from the Governments of Sweden, Norway and
Denmark - following a similar injection in 2009 from the same sources.
South African Airways ZAR1.5 billion loan from the State in 2009/10 in exchange for shares, following a ZAR 3 billion loan from the State in 2008.
Spanair €120 million in loans and capital increases from the Catalan Government in 2010/11.
Swiss US$1.5 billion state aid in 2002.
Thai Airways THB 23 billion loan from four State-owned banks in 2008/2009.

cavorting... I missed commenting on this one: "...away from an insignificant little socialist island..."!!!

Methinks that you'll find that that "little ... island" powerhouse (with it's not insignificant aviation industry) is significantly missing from the above list (privided by 'FuelFlow') of socialist state-interference in the airline industry!! It doesn't take a degree in politics to see where the real socialism is!!!

Airlines should be cut free from state involvement and allowed to fly off into their futures on their own! And those that can't cope on their own should be left to the same fate as the dodo.

(However, please don't take this too personally as I've enjoyed many of your posts!!!)

So if I'm reading Fuel Flows post correctly... National carriers are a bad idea... Who would have thought!!!!!?????!!!!!

National carriers
 

If you are a tea-man, working in the Kuruman railway siding, for the last 35 years now, you probably buy a packet of sugar or jam now and then as a " luxury". Maybe even a packet of tobacco for your pipe. Bad man, no biscuit!
Of this ill spent money, 14 % will go directly to the country's income tax coffers. So tea-man, the closest you will ever get to flying SAA is seeing their con-trail overhead. But, your bloody hard earned money is going directly to keep the Black-Hole propped up! But no doubt in your eyes this is "right"? After all, all good African countries MUST have a National Carrier! (why?)

Now 'considering' that we "need" a National Carrier, if SAA were to have ONLY it's long haul aircraft and only fly LONG haul routes(Lagos is not), then EVERYONE in SA would be happy! SAA will not be pulverising local business toes, who ARE able to fly local and regional and cater for all the demand more than sufficiently, and thereby show reasonable to good profits.
The country gets to keep and show off it's National Carrier which is crucial for world/African standing....
(the pilots at SAA get to keep their [ what word?] salaries.)
We in honoust private business are allowed to do business in a way that IS good for the country's employment issues.
But alas, the BIGGER picture.... Who gets to decide on the routes and contracts and MOST importantly, the aircraft purchased? Not the correct consultants in the relevant fields, but the venerable hallowed politicians for the "commission"!!!
I reiterate about the modern politician. The only way the French got rid of the entrenched disgusting Royal rot, was not through negotiation, but by chopping off their heads! (Same goes for the voracious big business's insatiable lust to have everything AND prevent any others from getting anything more than what they need to stay alive! See the new slavery of the 21st century)

I met a SAA captain late last year, whilst I was down-route in South America. Had a chat with him and his wife and they have decided enough is enough, and are leaving for ..... the UK. Interesting! Nothing in SA attracts them enough to want to stay. Just like I wasn't interested in remaining in Zimbabwe.

Africa is hell bent on turning itself in to a sewer. So be it. They can have their sewer.

WTF
 

After reading all this my deliberation is as follows :
Start a process of privatization of SAA, make all employees reapply for their jobs should they wish to take the gamble and if non profitable let them take the path of so many more deserving airlines that have seen their demise. SAA staff are only so defensive because they fear the truth, you are expensive in relation to your true value and thats no fault of your own but rather inherited so don't feel bad:{
Guys were tired of carrying you so don't hate us Mwah xxx

An SAA captain wanting to move to the UK... Why??!! To quote above: "Can't quite imagine who in their right minds would want to walk, or slither and slide, along a dark wintery country road in Britain? They're always either wet or icy and full of pot holes." !!!

But then, your risk of being murdered in the UK is 1.43/100,000 against 34.1/100,000 in SA (see the palindrome?); slightly more people are killed on the roads in the UK in a whole year than are killed on the roads during the summer holiday break in SA!! (Not opinions... facts.)

But more importantly, sticking to this topic, there is a very big non-state funded airline industry in the UK, showing how it can/should be done... That gives the fare-paying public a lot of good choice and good service and it gives pilots a lot of choice and (especially if they are 'regional' or 'lo-cost' pilots) better working conditions than many other parts of the world.

"Come on in... the water's nice!!!" And the beer!!

(The 'proudly South African contingent have gone rather quiet here... haven't they? All good fun!!)

Haven't gone quiet....just busy with my bidsheet trying to decide whether to go to Munich for some skiing, to Beijing or Hong Kong for some shopping, to Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires for some good meat or maybe just ask for some ad hoc leave so I can take my BMW 1200 down to the airport, hop in my RV7 and head down to my holiday home at the coast.

Decisions, decisions :hmm::hmm::hmm: