South Africa: South African Airways suspends domestic flights

Text by: RFI Follow

In serious financial difficulty, the South African national airline South African Airways (SAA) announced that it will suspend almost all of its domestic flights at the end of the month as well as several international lines. Eleven air connections are affected by these savings measures. All domestic lines except the one connecting Johannesburg to Cape Town are affected. The unions are firmly opposed to this decision, the only one that can save the airline from bankruptcy, according to its leaders.

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In South Africa, details of the South African Airways (SAA) restructuring plan were released on Thursday (February 6th) by the advisers in charge of rescuing the state-owned company.

On 29th February 2020, we will close the following regional and international services from Johannesburg to Abidjan via Accra, Entebbe, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Luanda, Munich, Ndola, and Sao Paulo.

From February 29, SAA will no longer operate the link between Johannesburg and Abidjan via Accra. The flights connecting the South African economic capital to Entebbe in Uganda and Luanda in Angola will also be stopped as well as those to China or Brazil.

" Economic sabotage "

But these cost-saving measures raise many concerns in South Africa. The governor of the province of Kwazulu-Natal notably criticized the abolition of the line connecting Johannesburg to the metropolis of Durban, without the local elected representatives being informed. This decision amounts to the " economic sabotage " of the region according to him. Same anger on the side of the unions which have not been consulted either and who fear " a devastating impact on jobs ".

South African Airways employs 5,000 people and its debt to the government and banks is estimated at more than 1 billion euros. Targeted by the investigation into the corruption scandals of the Jacob Zuma era, the South African airline received an emergency loan of 213 million euros in January, in an attempt to escape new both bankruptcy.

► (Re) listen: South African Airways: "There is too much politics in management"

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• South Africa
• Aerospace

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