South African Airways in Trouble ?
 

This sounds dire. Accurate ?:


"Africa’s second largest airline and one of its most historic is in danger of liquidation…"


https://airwaysmag.com/airlines/sout...airways-brink/

SAA is badly run, overstaffed and a liability to all us poor bastards as taxpayers - plain and simply put. In fairness to SAA's competitors it should be liquidated or sold. If it is sold, the question then is who would buy a company that is so overstaffed (with many of them obviously incompetent with the job in hand) and would the unions/government allow retrenchments? That leaves us with "dump it".

I would remove the question mark. Yes they are in trouble, as long as the politicians use SAA as a "self service shop", nothing will change.

Well, I sure hope this doesn't turn out as predicted.

You could write a whole book about the mis-management of SAA, which has been ongoing for years. The need for repeated bailouts by the taxpayer have not helped stabilise the situation, and political interference in the running of the state-owned entity has made things worse. For the latest saga see: Zuma/Gordhan rift over SAA is false - Presidency | Fin24

Some critical aspects have now come to a head, and while the risks of liquidation are real, such an outcome would be unrealistic, since the airline is too-big-to-fail. Expect some sort of compromise, which will postpone the immediate crisis, but with no long term solution in sight.

BTW, the photo at the top of the article inadvertently highlights one of the most obvious problems faced by SAA, its ownership of A340 four-engine jets, which are no longer fuel efficient, and have plummeted in resale value.

I thought Dudu is the most obvious problem ;)

Sure, quads are a problem. But with todays fuelprize SAA should be able to use them and gain some profit.

How many pilots are at risk here ?

IF this is true it would make me very sad The SAA engineers were the best at any down route station Terry Morgan BA 747[ long since retired]

Privatisation is the only sane solution.
Declare insolvency to allow IAG or similar to step in without all of the dead wood and politically appointed incompetants.
The A340s are not the problem, just a smokescreen to cover up the overstaffing and the enormous wage bill.

Just let Willie Walsh sort it out in the same way that he sorted Iberia.
Sort out the abysmal cabin service and the passengers should come back.

A BIGGGGGG roger on that Skipper! SA engineers are nothing short of spectacular. They're pretty good around a bbq(brai) too. Don't fret too much about the boys though. Their virtues are well known globally and they're aggressively head hunted by operators who pay much better than SAA.

The stakes are getting higher: SAA looking for R16 billion to keep flying

Privatisation would be the rational solution, but this is Africa....

Why on earth would IAG/Willie Walsh want to invest in SAA?

As has been said, they are a basket case and BA/IAG can clean up on the JNB and CPT routes with little competition from SAA and use franchisee Comair to transfer pax to / from LHR / local cities.

What else have SAA got to offer over the above?

Not a lot, I would suggest.

Even if they did invest they would have to contend with SA politics and politicians with their way of doing business.

If I were Willie, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!

The whole point of privatisation is to get rid of the politicians and their expensive unproductive dead wood.
Run as a proper fully independant business with good professional management it could be a good profitatable airline. There would naturally be howls of protest from the unions but the choice is simple - privatisation with job cuts or insolvency with no jobs.

SAA is in very deep Dudu.......:rolleyes:

The bailouts will continue: Myeni set to win SAA battle and remain board chair - report | Fin24 and SAA gets breather on Hong Kong deregistration | Fin24

TwinJock :D:D:D

The game of musical troughs continues. Still a few comrades who need to be rotated through a couple of directorial and managerial positions to get a good suck at the trough, so the edifice will continue being propped up by public money until all have had their turn at the gravy or it goes tits up regardless.

The sense of entitlement to public funds for personal ends by the regime is absolutely mind boggling.

My deep and sincere apologies to Dudu Myeni. Now we know what's the proplem. The gredy pilots...... Pampered SAA pilots? bizarre perks and wages cost R2bn | The Citizen

"Glorified drivers"... wow, I thought the Australian media was bad! As someone from outside ZA, I'm assuming this particular "news" agency is simply pushing an agenda? (I note several "white" comments)