South Africa’s government begins moves to sell the airline.
Reports confirmed it that the South African government has started talks with private entities interested in buying into the country’s insolvent national carrier, which needs at least R10-billion rand to survive and resume operations.
The airline has not made any profit for a decade and has long been a drain on state finances, is only relying on bailouts and debt guarantees for it to survive.
According to the Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, any fresh cash injection into the airline must come from private sources.
One of the major suitors that have in the past shown interest is the largest and only consistently profitable carrier in Africa, Ethiopian Airlines Group.
SAA’s administrators had agreed with the government and labor groups to reduce the workforce to about 1,000 employees from more than 4,000, and that process should be completed by the end of September. Source said.
SAA has been in administration since December and hasn’t flown a commercial passenger flight since March when South Africa’s borders were closed to help contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
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