Always appreciate your level-headedness Mr.Rider

There are however, a disproportionate number of your colleagues (my mates excluded of course :E) that strut around with a tube of Pringles on each shoulder, as if being a driver-airframe in your relatively innocuous establishment, somehow elevates them to the right hand seat of divinity.

We know the FLT OPS dept is not at fault for the monumental goat-rope that is SAA management, but sometimes winding your neck in (for some) might be the better option - especially towards those that keep food on your table, while your esteemed employer flounders around in the trough of other's hard earned, begrudgingly-forked-over, tax monies and other ill-gotten gains.

Now repeat after me :" remember thou art mortal...remember thou art mortal..."

Ghost Rider, you mention that SAA is still the most awesome airline to fly for. By way of comparison, how many international airlines have you been employed with?
Ever flown a NAT track? A polar route? Over the Himalayas? Anything over 500 tonnes?
Just curious as to what you base your assertion on.

Large-ish fish in small-ish ponds, Mr Journeyman?

Got nothing against the folks at SAA, except for those too dull to realise the sacrifices made by others to keep their ship afloat. In the SA context it probably is a good airline to fly for, but at what cost to the decreasing minority of tax payers? The insular views of some can be embarrassing to those in the company who know better. Always a good way to kill the conversation when the Spoories maatjies get too loud around the braai.:E

Speaking of braais, I have an idea for an SAA pilots PR exercise. Invite all the other airlines' crew around for a bring and braai -except they do the bringing and the braai-ing. That way we can feel like we at least get something back from their salaries that we helped pay! Seriously, I've personally paid for at least a steak and a few beers by now?!

Never heard the ANC called that before.

......... would be more appropriate.

The way this once top airline has been allowed to become a plaything for the corrupt practices of the government, with all the top people being BEE appointments, is a national scandal.

But look at the bright side. At least its making history as the first 'mainline' airline to be run by its lowcost subsidiary.:E

Ironic really. 'Oppressed' country with 'racist' government gets 'democracy'.

Previously oppressed now become the oppressors. 'Previously disadvantaged' are now slotted into top jobs in parastatals where they procede to demonstrate their ignorance, racism, nepotism, corruption, and incompetence. People who were previously running these organisations with some success are sidelined. Massive bailouts, one black CEO after another falls by the wayside, discredited.

White Afrikaaner now comes back to pick up the pieces. Maybe there is some hope! Good luck, Nico, you'll need it!

This thread is BORING !!! Stop the mud-slinging .....

I don't think SAA pilots need to reply to postings on this thead.

It's a losing battle.

This is my last post.....

The pilots and the Flight Ops Department have no control over how SAA is funded. We just sign on , do what we' re paid to do and be merry....:}

:ugh:

...and the air crew still cant stop dabbling in the drug trade...

What a constant embarrassment this 'ambassador' of our flag is.

IF the poor tax payer can't ditch this millstone, can't they at least change the name so as not to reflect on the country?

You mean, call it 'Air Zuma', or 'Jou ma se Lugdiens'.

"Fly with us and see how your bucks are being wasted Airways."

Capetonian,

"Jou ma se lugdiens". That was absolutely brilliant. Had me in stitches...
As a fellow South African now living in Europe, I can empathise with what's going on there.

I need to dig out that article where they now claim that lightening strikes are targeting the previously disadvantaged too!

Gb

Here she is, in all her glory, with and without the livery. I used the top one to scam a Nigerian scammer who thought I was an aircraft broker. I actually got him to buy me a ticket from CPT - DUR of course I didn't use it and anyway it was in a fake name but he lost his bucks as it was a non-ref job!

The 'Jou ma se....' dates back to when Cheryl Carolus was 'chairperson' of the board of SAA.

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/...jmsairways.jpg
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/...psa51bf63a.jpg

http://cdn.mg.co.za/crop/content/ima...l.jpg/610x350/

Experts: State-owned enterprises doomed to fail | Business | Mail & Guardian ???!

Hi Tableview
I might well agree with you but - all of the above was predicted. Sadly, ZA is simply tottering down the same brimstone path that all newly independent countries go down - not just African ones. Each country has to learn for itself and to grow up, remember that the New ZA is less than 20 years old!

This is not an excuse just a view aftger watching the process a few times.

Can they not learn and not blindly repeat the mistakes of those before?

Africa is a continent of corruption and failure, each country collapsing once the "locals" take charge. Pity.....

It was the same under white Apartheid rule (SAAF jobs for pals, little accountability, white male AA, etc) Just fewer snouts in the trough, so it was less obvious and more sustainable. Ops normal, just consequences now more obvious, more confusion, even less accountability, jobs for extended families.

It is the same all over the world, that is why America, Europe, et al is in the trouble they are in. As soon as a government starts to interfere too much, everything goes south, incompetence and politicking goes north.

The same goes for the corporate world. As soon as greed (the me-me culture) and public shareholding comes in, work-life balance, fair pay and work conditions goes south, so the best talent and workers goes elsewhere.

Both extremes equally bad and short sighted !!

When will the (another) new SAA plan be launched? I have read somewhere that it may include cutting some routes? Sounds like more shrinking (going southward), more routes into Africa, more international routes to go? Any info? :confused:Any retrenchments? No pilot intakes this year?

Still sounds messy and expensive for the desperate taxpayers. No pay increases for the overpaid SAA pilots.... (hopefully also not for SAA management either)

SAA borrows R1.5bn to keep going | News | National | Mail & Guardian

Meaning :

The R1.5-billion is working capital so that the fat cat ANC supporting management can keep flying themseleves and their families and friends on SAA's loss-making, long-haul business in a highly competitive market.

Although it's a bank loan this time, rather than a direct bailout. All that means is that the eventual bailout will include interest paid to the bank by the same source of funds they've come to rely upon.


Bring on the gravy!