1. Lease, sell or
mothball the aircraft
Place most of the SAA fleet
on semi-retirement, lease
them out (those that can
still fly), sell them off as
scrap or park them in the
hangars and keep them
under wraps for three to
five years. No flying will be
done, just keep doing the
minimum maintenance
for the hardware that you
keep (please keep the good
ones). Keep the windfall
from the aircraft sold and
rent out the popular routes,
but please do not sell them!
2. Give crew special
leave or retirement
Place the best crew with
other airlines on special
assignment. Retire some
crew and keep the minimum
on the payroll. This is now
a virtual airline. Use the
retained crew mainly for
domestic operations.
3. Agreements/
alignments/codeshares
Resign from the Star Alliance
as it is keeping SAA back.
Make arrangements with the
following airlines to connect
with their hubs:
a. Dubai (Emirates)
b. Addis Ababa (Ethiopian)
c. Frankfurt (Lufthansa) or
Amsterdam (Air France-
KLM) – the latter is the
better choice as you will
have two airline options
d. São Paulo (Latam)
e. Hong Kong (Cathay)
f. Atlanta (Delta Air Lines)
• Allow these airlines
additional flights on the
respective routes and
demand 50% of the seats
for the favour of pulling the
SAA flights.
• Get crew on to these
airlines to serve the SAA
customer and look after
the SA interest.
• Ensure that SAA has seats
on each of these carriers’
destinations beyond their
hubs (trade-off for more
frequencies) and then sell
those networks as if they
are your own. Between
these airlines you will
have a network second to
none! SAA has taken the
first step with such a deal
with Emirates. SAA could
be flying pax to New York
through six different hubs.
• Africa is a great strength,
but now it has airlines
that are far better than
you. Give them space to
operate.
4. Grow the revenue
and create a war chest
Make sure that the revenue
received from reduced
costs, like fuel and staff
bills (which are the biggest
cost-tickets), is used
to cover the taxpayers’
shortfall of R21 billion.
Once the airline has
erased the R21 billion, it
can then create savings of
a similar amount, before it
decides to come back on
the routes; that is if it still
has the appetite to fly its
own hardware at all!
Focus on the domestic
routes, consolidate
the three brands into
one, as you have been
contemplating for more than
five years. Get on with it,
this is your only chance at
survival!
5. Learn from the
professionals
Take this opportunity for
SAA crew and other staff to
learn from these airlines.
Let them go on courses
with these carriers and train
with them. That professional
attitude and behaviour may
just stick, and SAA could
just get the airline back on
track.
SAX staff to get the axe?
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