South Africa’s ailing national airline on Thursday announced plans to close almost all its domestic services and some international flights, the latest bid to save cash after a spree of cancellations.<\/p>\n
Flag carrier South African Airways (SAA) has failed to make a profit for more than a decade and gets by on government bailouts.<\/p>\n
Debt-ridden and strapped for cash, it was placed under a state-approved rescue plan in December following a week-long strike that pushed it to the verge of collapse.<\/p>\n
The business administrators have since cancelled more than one hundred flights in an attempt to streamline services and conserve funds.<\/p>\n
In their latest announcement, they detailed plans to definitively shut down some of those routes. <\/p>\n
They said in a statement that they “have identified which routes will be retained to drive the restructured national carrier towards profitability”.<\/p>\n
The cull targeted mainly domestic routes, with services to almost all South African destinations set to be cut on February 29.<\/p>\n
Domestically, only the Cape Town-Johannesburg route will continue to be served on a “reduced basis”.<\/p>\n
International flights will also be affected, including links to Abidjan, Hong Kong, Munich and Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n
Customers will either be accommodated on other airlines or fully refunded.<\/p>\n
Some travel agents have stopped providing cancellation insurance for SAA flights.<\/p>\n
South Africa’s government has admitted it is still seeking a solution to finance the airline, which has a fleet of more than 50 planes and employs more than 5,000 workers.<\/p>\n
A state-owned bank stepped in with a state-guaranteed loan of 3.5 billion rand ($2.4 million, 2.2 million euros) last month.<\/p>\n
Despite the efforts, administrators warned that restructuring measures would also lead to job cuts.<\/p>\n
“A reduction in the number of employees will unfortunately be necessary,” they said, pledging to “retain as many jobs as possible”. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, SAA subsidiary SA Express appealed a judgement that placed the company under business rescue.<\/p>\n
“It is clear that the court went over and above what it was required,” said the airline on Thursday in a statement.<\/p>\n