Weeks after exiting a Business Rescue process that has caused South Africa’s legacy carrier over 17 months of uncertainty, South African Airways (SAA) has their fingers crossed for resumption of travel as early as July or August according to the airline’s CEO.
While this is a signal that SAA may be ready to fly, the airline’s restart of services is still facing “complexities” due to COVID-19 as well as issues with pilots regarding disagreement over outstanding salaries and layoff terms.
“As a draft or as a proposal we are looking at July-August 2021, however, these dates come with some complexities, the issue of the COVID-19 is something that we still need to consider … and there is a complex matter that we are dealing with of pilots as well,” said SAA’s Chief Executive Thomas Kgokolo during a parliamentary presentation committee.
The state-owned carrier has not flown passenger flights since September 2020 and was put under administration towards the end of 2019. The airline exited its bankruptcy protection status after receiving $USD550 million funding from the government to aid towards its restructure with the company not giving further details on its future.
By Victor Shalton Odhiambo
