South African Airways\u00a0(SA,\u00a0Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has long-term plans to reintroduce A350 operations to resume most long-haul routes it was flying before the Covid-19 pandemic, says interim chief commercial officer, Tebogo Tsimane.<\/p>\n
To start with, the state-owned airline plans to use its leased\u00a0A330-300s to launch two long-haul routes \u2013 to\u00a0Sao Paulo Guarulhos\u00a0(Brazil) and\u00a0Perth International\u00a0(Australia) – by the end of the current financial year ending March 31, 2023, he said on a recent Travel News Weekly webcast.<\/p>\n
A second phase\u00a0will see the national carrier resume flights to\u00a0Frankfurt International\u00a0(Germany),\u00a0London Heathrow\u00a0(UK),\u00a0Washington Dulles\u00a0and\u00a0New York JFK\u00a0(USA) with A350s. It is also looking at routes in the pipeline before it entered bankruptcy in December 2019 and stopped all commercial flights in 2020, including another gateway to Australia \u2013 probably\u00a0Melbourne Tullamarine\u00a0\u2013 but “this would take a while,” he said.<\/p>\n
SAA previously operated four\u00a0A350-900s between October 2019 and August 2020, including former\u00a0Air Mauritius\u00a0aircraft and two ex-Hainan Airlines\u00a0aircraft leased from\u00a0Avolon, the\u00a0ch-aviation fleets history\u00a0module shows.<\/p>\n
“The routes that we’ve picked for this year are the routes that will be easier and quicker for us to start. They do not require the type of investment that will take us long,” he explained.<\/p>\n
Apart from restarting long-haul operations, the state-owned carrier also plans to add schedules to more coastal destinations, including between Cape Town and Durban, Johannesburg and\u00a0George, and Johannesburg and\u00a0Port Elizabeth, Tsimane disclosed.<\/p>\n
SAA resumed commercial flights on September 23, 2021, as a vastly diminished carrier after a ZAR10.5 billion rand (USD570.3 million) bailout with a small fleet of six aircraft comprising three\u00a0A319-100s leased from\u00a0Castlelake, two\u00a0A320-200s leased from\u00a0Goshawk, and one A330-300 leased from\u00a0Aero Capital Solutions. With the addition of three more A320-200s leased from\u00a0GECAS, the fleet has since grown to ten aircraft, which includes one in-house\u00a0A340-300\u00a0used as a spare,\u00a0ch-aviation fleets advanced\u00a0data reveals. The flag carrier operated 44 aircraft before it entered voluntary administration. Its business rescue plan foresaw a fleet of 26 aircraft by December 2021, comprising ten “small narrowbodies” [presumably regional aircraft], nine narrowbodies, and seven widebodies.<\/p>\n
The airline initially resumed services on one domestic route between\u00a0Johannesburg O.R. Tambo\u00a0and\u00a0Cape Town\u00a0and on five regional routes:\u00a0Accra\u00a0(Ghana),\u00a0Harare International\u00a0(Zimbabwe),\u00a0Kinshasa N’Djili\u00a0(DRC),\u00a0Lusaka\u00a0(Zambia), and\u00a0Maputo\u00a0(Mozambique). It has since introduced services to\u00a0Durban King Shaka,\u00a0Blantyre\u00a0and\u00a0Lilongwe\u00a0(Malawi),\u00a0Victoria Falls\u00a0(Zimbabwe),\u00a0Mauritius, and\u00a0Windhoek International\u00a0(Namibia).<\/p>\n
The airline is to receive\u00a0another ZAR1 billion (USD) state bailout\u00a0to settle a portion of the outstanding obligations on the implementation of its business rescue plan. The funds will be used to cover outstanding liabilities, specifically those relating to the final dividend payment to creditors and the refund of legacy unflown ticket revenue dating back to the pre-business rescue period in December 2019.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the latest bailout, SAA’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, John Lamola, stated: “SAA’s operations have progressed positively since the airline emerged from business rescue, and as reported to Parliament earlier this month, SAA is no longer technically insolvent, a milestone which we reached a year earlier than projected”.<\/p>\n
Chief Financial Officer Fikile Mhlontlo added: “SAA has reached a point where we cover our operating costs. It must be emphasised that the allocation announced relates only to historical debt. These funds are not meant to bolster the business plan we are currently executing”.<\/p>\n
The airline explained that the ZAR1 billion allocation was part of ZAR3.5 billion (USD190 million) that its administrators had ring-fenced into a receivership. “The total balance expected from National Treasury has been reduced to ZAR2.586 billion (USD140.4 million). The airline will continue to negotiate with National Treasury for the balance of the funds and cooperate with all the conditions that may accompany the flow of these funds,” it stated.<\/p>\n
Takatso, the government’s preferred strategic equity partner for the semi-privatisation of SAA, said the allocation fell short of clearing the historical debt, which the government has undertaken to do as one of the conditions for finalising the transaction that has been negotiated for almost two years since first announced in June 2021. “The partial fulfilment of this obligation is not what Takatso Aviation had expected. We will therefore have to assess the impact thereof on the progress of the transaction,” it stated.<\/p>\n
Lamola\u00a0previously told ch-aviation\u00a0that SAA would double its leased fleet to 12 aircraft by April 2023 as part of a fleet and intercontinental route expansion plan to be implemented irrespective of delays or even indefinite postponement of the privatisation deal with Takatso.<\/p>\n
He said by April 2023, the fleet would consist of ten A320-200s, one A330-300, and another wide-body (A350) for intercontinental routes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South African Airways\u00a0(SA,\u00a0Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has long-term plans to reintroduce A350 operations to resume most long-haul routes it was flying before the Covid-19 pandemic, says interim chief commercial officer, Tebogo Tsimane. To start with, the state-owned airline plans to use its leased\u00a0A330-300s to launch two long-haul routes \u2013 to\u00a0Sao Paulo Guarulhos\u00a0(Brazil) and\u00a0Perth International\u00a0(Australia) – by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[102,88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-en","category-flights"],"yoast_head":"\n