EDITORIAL: Comair stutters, yet government plans SAA 2.0
That Comair should be forced into such a drastic step makes public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan’s persistence with the resurrection of SAA all the more absurd
Until last year, a plucky little SA company had managed to produce 74 years of unbroken profit. Incredibly, it was the only company, worldwide, to have done so in an industry where all the other players have, at some point, either lost money or gone belly-up.That company is Comair, which runs low-cost airline Kulula and operates British Airways flights in Southern Africa. Its proud history makes its decision to file for business rescue this week all the more devastating.Clearly, it is business abnormal, and if you were still clinging to the notion, however feebly, that we will quickly bounce back from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, it may be time to face the bitter reality that we will not.Comair is the latest to fold into business rescue in recent days, following one-time retail leviathan Edcon. Covid-19 has proven the final straw for frail companies, which might have been just about surviving SA’s brittle economy.Thankfully, Comair’s decision is by no means game over for t...
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