Doing the right thing: SAA refunds R9m to holders of unused tickets

There is good news on the horizon for anybody waiting for refunds of unused SAA tickets. The airline is trying hard to rebuild trust and confidence in the market by speeding up refunds of unused tickets.

South Africa’s national carrier entered a business rescue process in December 2019, due to its severe financial situation. In May 2020, SAA’s business rescue practitioners halted the airline’s flights due to financial constraints.

SAA resumes commercial flights

The airline resumed commercial flights again in September this year after it exited a lengthy business rescue in April. SAA no longer flies to most of the destinations in its former route network and SA Express (a former SAA subsidiary) is no longer operational whatsoever.

Many passengers holding tickets for destinations once served by SAA (and SA Express Airways) are at a loss, as well as passengers who were unable to use their tickets during the extended period when flights were suspended.

SAA REBUILDS TRUST IN THE MARKET

In a recent interview with Michael Avery of Business Talk, SAA’s interim executive of commercial operations, Simon Newton-Smith said that the airline is on a path to rebuilding trust with customers. Newton-Smith said that the airline is doing things differently and will act responsibly.

SAA is doing this by having restarted flights as well as by refunding money for unused tickets. Newton-Smith said that “One, getting back in the air and two, getting money back in people’s pockets” were ways that the airline was showing the public that it could be trusted.

“You can’t be an airline and not fly, to be trusted to do what we are supposed to be doing. That was a key motivation for relaunching services back in September. So first of all, being an airline and being back in the air is a key step in building trust with the public. Second, we’re also really clear that a lot of our customers were impacted by the business rescue. We have about 15 000 refunds that we need to process in South Africa,” he said.

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SAA RAMPS UP REFUNDS

There have been media reports of SAA not being able to process refunds and warnings for passengers to avoid flying with South African Airways. This has tarnished the airline’s reputation and made the public weary of buying tickets for flights with SAA.

However, the airline has been issuing refunds since June and has ramped up its ability to process refunds. Newton-Smith says that SAA has issued over R 9 million in refunding of unflown tickets to date.

“The pace is picking up on making these refunds. We weren’t able to start that process until June. We started with a small team of 3 dedicated to refunds but now its nearly 30 (in the team). We were clearing refunds to the tune of R 100 000 a week initially. My numbers last week suggest that we have cleared over R 9 million worth of refunds,” Newton Smith said.