Following an agreement for emergency funding, South African Airways (SAA) has announced it will “scrutinise” its schedule to make temporary changes to services while it develops a business rescue plan.
The airline was put into business rescue, a form of bankruptcy protection, towards the end of last year, at which point the South African government had agreed a 2 billion rand loan to keep the company operating.
However, last week it emerged that the government was refusing to pay out any cash without certain guarantees, which led to SAA cancelling some domestic flights and consolidating them on services operated by sister airline Mango.
Earlier this week, the airline secured a 3.5 billion rand loan, helping its future look more secure.
Now SAA has said the “conservation of cash through various cost reduction measures is critical to running an efficient airline and to create a platform on which a future for a restructured entity can be built”.
The carrier is now announcing domestic and international flight cancellations during the month of February on routes where demand is low based on current forward bookings.
These include services between Johannesburg and Durban, Cape Town, East London (ELS), Livingstone, Kinshasa, Dar Es Salaam, Nairobi, Windhoek and Washington via Accra.
A full list of cancellations can be found here.
SAA’s chief commercial officer Philip Saunders commented: “We are committed to accommodating all affected customers on alternative flights, operated by the airline and its Star Alliance partners. Any inconvenience or delays are intended to be minimal.”
The airline is urging customers to keep up to date with schedule changes via its website.
SAA intends to publish its business rescue plan by the end of February and will present it to creditors afterwards.
In addition to the schedule changes, SAA’s business rescue practitioner has been reviewing all third party contracts with the intention to cancel or renegotiate any “onerous” contracts.