LETTER: SAA is not an exception
Virgin Australia was carrying an unsustainable debt of about R60bn and its government refused to give it another R17bn bailout
22 April 2020 - 15:29
Some readers may have missed the sad story in Business Day on April 21 about the airline that has just been placed under administration as a prelude to liquidation. True, it was carrying an unsustainable debt of about R60bn and its government, though already subsidising some of its routes, had refused to give it another R17bn bailout.
The airline is Virgin Australia. In the depths of our Covid-19 challenges, we need to avoid too much SA exceptionalism. Running an airline is a difficult business, particularly if you’re stuck at the end of a continent, and SAA is just one of the family of case studies...
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