Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 14-11-2019
Aviation expert and editor of the SA Flyer Magazine says South African Airways is in dire financial crisis because it is not receiving much support from Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni who are looking for an excuse to get rid of the airline.
In ancticipation of a looming strike by The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and the SA Cabin Crew Association, SAA has decided to cancel all domestic and international flights for Friday and Saturday.
The unions served SAA with a 48-hour strike notice, which may see passengers stranded.
They are angry after SAA announced restructuring that could lead to mass job losses.
Speaking to Radio Islam, Guy Leitch says SAA has not received much support from government.
“I don’t think that the airline has much support where it really matters and that is from Minister Pravin Gordhan and Minister Tito Mboweni who control the purse strings and the SOE’s. I think they would be quite keen to find an excuse to just literally get rid of the airline one way or another and the staff going on strike and the airline being grounded would be a pretty good excuse.”
Leitch says the decision by SAA to cancel flights is just a slight delay, which does not affect some international flights.
“A lot of the international flights would leave with a full crew compliment. So there’s sort of a bit of leeway or buffer built into the system with the international flights. But if the unions continue the strike for longer than two days, I think the entire airline would have to look at being grounded.”
SAA says that the strike would hurt the already cash-strapped airline with estimated losses of more than R50 million per day.
Listen to the interview with Guy Leitch
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