Hardship before lift-off, says SAA
Chairman Magwaza promises to find a credible turnaround strategy
South African Airways (SAA) chairman Johannes Magwaza has committed the board to coming up with a credible strategy to lift the airline out of its quagmire though he warned that it would go down before it rose up again. The challenge, he said in a briefing to the finance committee on Wednesday, would be to limit the bleeding while going down and to try to make this period as short as possible. Magwaza’s comments followed the announcement by SAA chief financial officer Phumeza Nhantsi that the airline was projecting a loss of R4bn for the 2018 financial year. This was much worse than the R2.8bn loss projected in the five-year turnaround plan, mainly because of the costs associated with the airline’s exit from the leasing of five narrow-bodied aircraft. By end-September the loss for the year to date was R2.1bn, up from the R1.8bn projected. Revenue came in at R14.5bn, lower than the R15.4bn that had been budgeted. Magwaza said it was urgent that the lack of expertise at the airline be...
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