SAA launches drive to lure back former pilots

SAA aims to recall some of its former pilots as it expands its operations.

In correspondence dated August 4, and seen by Business Day, pilots are informed that the state-owned flag carrier now has a number of A320 first officer positions available.

“SAA intends to comply with its obligations regarding preferential re-employment as provided for in the Settlement Agreement of July 16 2023 with the SAA Pilots Association. We hereby request that you indicate whether you will be interested to be recalled in one of these positions,” the letter reads.

“Please take note that this email communication does not constitute an offer of employment. We are simply assessing your willingness and eligibility to be re-employed as a first officer with SAA, so as to allow SAA to plan accordingly should an offer be made to you. Any offers to pilots who are interested and qualify will be made in order of seniority. Should SAA be able to offer you a position this will be conditional [on] your being able to commence with the company within three months from the date of an offer.”

SAA confirmed the pilot recall drive on Thursday. The airline did not indicate how many pilots it aims to recall but according to industry insiders it is almost 60.

“During the restructuring of the airline, SAA entered into an agreement with the SAA Pilots Associations (SAAPA) that, should the airline be able to recruit more pilots, it would look at those pilots that were retrenched in 2021 first. To that end, a recall list was established and settled at the time,” the airline said.

“SAA is pleased to report that the airline is now growing its route network and fleet size and requires additional operational resources. Therefore, it is now activating that agreement and speaking to pilots who are on the recall list about returning to the airline to reactivate their careers and resume flying.”

SAA added that part of the agreement reached in 2021 included the need to have an employment equity plan as required by law.

“SAA is working on honouring that, as well as being compliant with the laws of the country,” stated SAA. “The recruitment is ongoing and will end when the requisite numbers have been brought on board.”

The pilot recruitment drive is not the first this year. In March, SAA also sent out a request for the purposes of recalling pilots.

In that earlier letter, also seen by Business Day, SAA refers to the 2021 settlement agreement with SAAPA saying that it “provides, inter alia, that if the need arises for SAA to fill any vacant pilot positions within 36 months of the pilots’ retrenchment date, SAA is required to give preference to retrenched pilots and pilots who have been placed on the training and layoff scheme in accordance with the recall list, subject to the company’s revised employment equity plan.

“In light of the resignations that have taken place to date and the need to fill the now vacant pilot positions and new positions, SAA intends to comply with its obligations in terms of the settlement agreement.”

SAA went into business rescue in December 2019. In terms of its approved business rescue plan, only 88 pilots were retained for the “new SAA”. Many of the retrenched pilots ended up finding work locally or abroad.

Before it went into business rescue, SAA had about 620 pilots on its books. Of these, almost 100 were on unpaid leave and about 20 were not flying due to medical or other reasons. About 220 took voluntary severance packages during the business rescue process. Of the about 400 pilots then remaining, about 75% were active pilots.

Projections made in SAA’s business rescue plan, foresaw the airline by now already operating almost 30 aircraft and employing more than 300 pilots. SAA now has a fleet of about six aircraft and employs about 80 pilots.

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