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9 septiembre 2018

South African Airways add extra flights to Angola

Starting today, South African Airways has added two extra flights a week flying from South Africa to Angola. The airline will use its Airbus A320 to operate the additional services which fly between its hub airport at Johannesburg International Airport (JNB) and Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport, Luanda. South African Airways has now doubled the number of times it flies this route, extending it from twice a week to four times a week. 

A representative from South African Airways said that this is part of the airlines wider strategy of covering more countries in Africa at a higher frequency. 

21 junio 2018

Mango Airlines, SA Express and South African Airways to all operate as South African Airways?

Mango Airlines, SA Express and South African Airways are to merge into one airline, presumably under the name of the biggest airline of the three, South African Airways.  Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan announced that the state has come to a decision on the merger due all three airlines flying the same routes around South Africa. The state has come to the conclusion that not only will it be more economically viable to run as one airline, but services will be a lot more efficient, as all the great minds from each individual airlines can come together as one. 

Gordhan also mentioned that he everyone understands that doing this is a risk. He said that merging the three airlines is going to present some tough times and challenges, but ultimately, it's a good move for South African Airways and South Africa will only benefit from it in the long run.

7 junio 2018

AirHelp rank South African Airways as the 5th best airline in the world

Flight compensation company, AirHelp, have released the results of their annual AirHelp score rating, which is an algorithm that rates airlines based on their quality of service, punctuality rate and claim processing (how the airline deals with customer complaints).

South African Airways were named the 5th best airline in the world according to AirHelp. South African Airways were given an 8.69 claim processing score, an 85% punctuality rate and a score of 8 for quality of service. This brings their overall score to an impressive 8.31.

31 mayo 2018

Exclusive: South African Airways to get $400 million capital injection after plea for cash - CEO

South Africa has promised another 5 billion rand ($400 million) capital injection to help its struggling state airline meet urgent financial obligations, the CEO of South African Airways (SAA) said on Thursday.

SAA has not generated a profit since 2011 and has already received state guarantees totaling nearly 20 billion rand. It needs the money to help pay debts and prop up the business as it implements a turnaround plan.

The promise of more government cash comes after SAA Chief Executive Vuyani Jarana told parliament in April that the firm needed the capital injection “now”.

“Government has committed to inject another 5 billion rand into SAA. Part of that 5 billion rand we will repay some of the creditors, suppliers, then the balance will support us for working capital until around October/November,” Jarana told Reuters in an interview.

The Treasury said it would follow its normal budgetary process, which entails seeking cabinet approval.

“The outcome of this process is expected to be finalised in time for the 2018 MTBPS (Medium Term Budget Policy Statement),” the Treasury said.

The MTBPS is usually presented to parliament in October.

Jarana said that while waiting for the funds, the company would negotiate for some breathing space with lenders.

“If Treasury needs a certain period of time to do this, lets say up to September, between now and then, we are negotiating with lenders to give us a bridging facility on the back of that commitment,” he said.

SAA is regularly cited by ratings agencies as a drain on the government purse, but the Treasury is hopeful that new executive leadership led by Jarana, a former executive at telecoms company Vodacom, would return the airline to profitability.

The government has said that SAA needs an equity partner to pump money into the company to address its liquidity crisis and to help with the implementation of a turnaround plan.

The airline was looking at several measures to cut costs and Jurana said reducing the current workforce of about 10,000 people was “inevitable”.

“Whether it’s pilots, cabin crew, administration, we are going to rationalize the workforce. It’s an unavoidable thing. We have been talking to trade unions about how we work together,” Jarana said.

“The first priority for me is job preservation, how do you find alternative jobs for people as a starting point before you go into the hard issues of retrenchments.”

Jarana said the company hopes to break even in three years time and “there onwards, everything else equal, it will be able to start paying for its own operations in terms of positive cash flows.”

5 octubre 2017

SAA acuerda contratar experto en recuperación

State airline in talks to appoint UK’s Peter Davies to help with restructuring.

South African Airways has agreed to hire a restructuring expert to help turn around the state-owned airline and meet conditions laid down by lenders to roll over debt, according to two people familiar with the matter.

El presidente ejecutivo entrante, Vuyani Jarana, se reunió con el veterano de la industria británica Peter Davies el mes pasado y aceptó ayudar a devolver SAA para obtener ganancias, dijo la gente, que pidió no ser identificada porque los planes son privados. Davies es ex CEO de aerolíneas europeas, incluidas Air Malta y Brussels Airlines, y actualmente dirige la consultora con sede en Londres Airline Management Group.

"Estamos finalizando los pasos que conducirán al nombramiento de un director de reestructuración", dijo el portavoz de SAA, Tlali Tlali, en comentarios enviados por correo electrónico. "No se puede hacer ningún anuncio sobre la identidad del candidato antes de asistir y resolver los problemas pendientes".

Davies didn’t immediately respond to a phone call and email seeking comment. 

The appointment of a strong management team is one of several conditions lenders have laid down to extend talks on loan repayments beyond Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s mid-term budget update in October, the people said. One of those was a payment of R700 million ($51.5 million) to Citigroup as part of R1.8 billion of debt due to the US bank by the end of September, which was released by the National Treasury along with funds for working capital on Friday.

Treasury confirmed the payment of R700 million to Citigroup and directed further questions to SAA.

Negociaciones de deuda

A group of South African lenders led by Nedbank Group — and including FirstRand, Standard Bank Group, Barclays Africa Group and Investec Plc — are prepared to negotiate a refinancing of debt through marzo 2019, the people said. In his mid-term budget update, Gigaba is expected to announce proposals intended to make SAA break even by about that date, including details of a recapitalisation plan, they said.

Nedbank, which is leading the talks, doesn’t provide details of its banking relationships with its clients, a spokesman said in an emailed response to questions.

SAA es una de las varias empresas estatales sudafricanas que necesitan fondos urgentes y el gobierno ha dicho que necesita un nuevo enfoque de gestión para mantenerse en funcionamiento. El transportista no ha obtenido ganancias desde 2011 y ha sobrevivido deudas respaldadas por garantías estatales. Jarana se convertirá en el primer consejero delegado permanente de la compañía desde 2015 cuando se una al operador inalámbrico Vodacom Group en noviembre 1. El Tesoro ha considerado vender parte o la totalidad de su participación de R12,000 millones en la compañía telefónica Telkom para ayudar a financiar un rescate.

Cortando rutas

SAA dijo la semana pasada que reduciría los vuelos a las ciudades sudafricanas de Port Elizabeth y East London como parte de su plan de reestructuración. El transportista también reducirá las rutas a Luanda, la capital de Angola, y Kinshasa en la República Democrática del Congo.

La aerolínea también está trabajando para repatriar hasta $ 1 mil millones desde Angola, Zimbabwe y Nigeria para ayudar a fortalecer el balance general, según la gente. El dinero está atrapado en esos países después de que las exportaciones colapsaron, lo que condujo a una escasez de divisas.

Jarana aporta la experiencia del sector privado de su tiempo en Vodacom y Davies ha sido identificado debido a su experiencia en aviación, dijo una de las personas.

Davies se hizo cargo de Air Malta cuando estaba haciendo una pérdida anual de 70 millones de euros ($ 82 millones) e hizo rentable a la aerolínea, según su página de LinkedIn. También fundó Caribbean Airlines en Trinidad y Tobago y también hizo que ese operador fuera rentable.

SAA ha tenido siete directores generales permanentes o temporales desde 2010. La presidenta Duduzile Myeni, una ex maestra de escuela que también encabeza la fundación benéfica del presidente Jacob Zuma, ha estado en el directorio de la aerolínea desde 2009 y actuó como presidenta de la junta hasta su nombramiento permanente en 2015. Su contrato fue renovado por un año en septiembre 2016.

29 septiembre 2017

New CEO of SAA to start role in November

South African Airways (SAA) has announced the start date of its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the airline's headquarters, Airways Park, Johannesburg, as noviembre 1, 2017.

abril 2017

South African Airways announced it had received a 4-star ranking, in both economy and business class for the 15th consecutive year.

The ranking was done by aviation experts Skytrax, whose name is associated with Quality Excellence throughout the world by the air transport industry, after detailed product and service standards audits throughout the airline, and included SAA’s new Airbus A330-300 aircraft. The process is not connected to any customer ratings. A 4-Star Airline rating signifies airlines providing a good standard of product and staff service across all travel categories, including cabin seating, safety standards, cabin cleanliness, comfort amenities, catering, tax-free sales, reading materials, in-flight entertainment, and staff service.

South African Airways and Ethiopian Airlines expanded the code-share agreeement 

The two airlines signed on 1 octubre 2016 by adding Cape Town, Durban and Toronto (Canada) as additional destinations to the existing code-share flights. Besides Toronto as the additional destination on offer, the expanded code share now also offers a direct service between Addis Ababa to both Cape Town and Durban. These routes will be operated by Ethiopian Airlines, with SAA as the marketing carrier. The two African airlines already code-share from Addis Abba, the Ethiopian capital to Johannesburg and from Addis Ababa to Bamako in Mali with all these flights operated by Ethiopian aircraft.

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O el Aeropuerto Internacional de Tambo

 

El Aeropuerto Internacional de OR Tambo es uno de los principales aeropuertos internacionales en Kempton Park, Gauteng, Sudáfrica, y es el aeropuerto principal de South African Airways.

The airport has two runways and can handle nearly 20 million passengers every year. Other airlines which fly to and from O.R. Tambo International Airport include Air Botswana, Air China, Air France, Air Seycelles, EgyptAir, EL Al, Ethiopian Airlines, Etihad Airways, South African Airways, Kulula, Singapore Airlines and Saudia. This airport is also featured on our best airports for shopping blog, be sure to check it out!