Taken on May 25, 2010, a South African airways flight takes off as another is parked in a bay at the Johannesburg OR Tambo International airport. Image via: Gianluigi GUERCIA / AFP
Taken on May 25, 2010, a South African airways flight takes off as another is parked in a bay at the Johannesburg OR Tambo International airport. Image via: Gianluigi GUERCIA / AFP
In what can only be described as something of a “cull”, the business practitioners trying to cut costs at South African Airways (SAA) are wielding the axe in devastating fashion. A number of domestic and international flights are set to be removed from their schedules at the end of February.
So SAA will close ALL domestic routes except for Cape Town – Johannesburg which happens to be the one flown by members of parliament.
— Michael Jordaan (@MichaelJordaan) February 6, 2020
What SAA flight routes have been cancelled?
In January, we saw the airline’s desperate scramble for cash result in a number of flight cancellations across South Africa. The firm then secured at R3.5 billion bailout, and they are using the money to streamline processes at the state-owned business. That means making some very unpopular decisions in the process.
The bigwigs behind the business rescue have confirmed that SAA will no longer operate flights to Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth or any other city in Mzansi apart from Johannesburg and Cape Town. They have retained a number of international services, claiming that these choices were made “in the name of profitability”.
The cities and destinations abandoned by South African Airways
The current flight schedule will only be in place for another 23 days. The last day in February will mark SAA’s final flights to and from airports in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and a few other provinces. Customers with pre-booked tickets will receive refunds for any cancelled international flights, whereas any affected domestic travellers will have their flights carried out by Mango instead.
“The international services from Johannesburg to Frankfurt, London, New York, Perth and Washington DC will continue to operate. But SAA will close routes from OR Tambo to all other domestic destinations apart from Cape Town… These routes operated by Mango Airlines will not be changed, however.
“Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth will cease to be operated by SAA on 29 February. Following a careful analysis of SAA’s liquidity challenges and after consultations with all relevant stakeholders, the BRPs have identified which routes will be retained to drive the restructured national carrier towards profitability.”
SAA statement
- This is a developing story and we’ll have more on this throughout the day.
Tags:
