In the latest news concerning SAA, the country’s flagship carrier airline, the company’s interim CFO, Fikile Mhlontlo, believes that the airline is poised for growth and it’s finances are on the road to recovery.
The airline went into business rescue and it’s been nearly two years since it emerged from its business rescue process in 2021.
According to Mhlontlo, the business rescue process led to an extensive restructuring in all key areas of the business and this reorganization and changes are starting to bear fruit.
“After emerging from the business rescue process, SAA resumed flights in September of the same year, beginning with just three routes which grew to ten routes by the end of December last year. SAA has since operated nearly 9 000 commercial flights, delivering more than 1.2 million seats,” said Mhlontlo.
He also revealed that the airline’s financial performance has improved significantly and the third quarter financial results of SAA the airline were positive.
“It is important to note that SAA is a group of companies, the different companies’ results are consolidated and were marginally negative at the end of quarter 3, while the airline entity results were positive...It is an important milestone to achieve positive results, considering the airline had posted significant losses for several years and was the very entity that was placed in business rescue, nearly leading to the collapse of the entire airline group,” said the CFO.
Mhlontlo also revealed that the airline also plans to increase its fleet size as they pursue growth and return to destinations they once serviced and/or new destinations.
“The growth in fleet and routes will contribute to the improvement of the bottom line as any increase in flying activities will enable offsetting the existing already optimised overhead structure without overly increasing the costs.
“It may certainly be difficult for those outside the airline to see just how dramatically SAA has shifted. I am saying this cognisant of various analyses and views, most of which are highly negative. But, from where I am sitting, SAA is well poised for survival and growth in the medium term,” said Mhlontlo.
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