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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 09 Feb 2016, 12:50 
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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 09 Feb 2016, 12:59 
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micfradus wrote:

at least i think it spiraled on the jumbo. oh i i loved being ushered upstairs. trully i wish i had pics. the ride was never the exciting part

\:D/


I prefer the A380 top deck, a lot more space in Business class then the 747.

Lufthansa is now using the B7474-8i on the South African route, strange seat layout. You clearly see it when you have flown from San Francisco to Frankfurt in an A380 and then 5 hours later in a 747 to Johannesburg, the A380 is a lot smoother ride with lot more space.


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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 09 Feb 2016, 17:23 
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truthfully i cant remember pepster. back then my mothers office was in schipol. even when i visited her she was so busy, only beeing able to take a week off for fun. she had a ticket printer in her office and was in the air 5 out of 7 days. i was fortunate enough to travel, NY San fran, europe and all. other than being able to remeber lufthansa was my favourite back then, i rated saa better than klm. comfort and seet config was fortunatley never an issue as i was always bumped up flying under my moms info.


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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 10 Feb 2016, 16:30 
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Zuma, Myeni, the Guptas and the grab for SAA
SAA came very close to liquidation. And someone was waiting in the wings to take over the national carrier
http://www.rdm.co.za/politics/2016/02/0 ... ab-for-saa
This is a very well researched comprehensive article


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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 10 Feb 2016, 18:00 
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Nice article rtd. lots of facts to look into.

i breifly skimmed it as i misread the heading. but bottom line im glad government looks after state owned companies and didnt allow it to be privatised. as for who will fulfil the positions of ceo and so forth....well, unfortunately this is where the game of favours and such play ball more so than actual credentials sometimes. sad but hman nature


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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 01 Aug 2016, 08:57 
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http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Industrial/glimpse-of-saa-report-shows-carrier-bleeding-money-20160801


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Glimpse of SAA report shows carrier bleeding money

Cape Town – A glimpse of a South African Airways (SAA) report reveals that the national carrier is bleeding money.

The quarterly report that Business Day has had sight of is the first financial information about the airline to reach the public domain for 18 months, as SAA has not finalised its annual financial statements for 2014-15.

The report reveals that SAA made a net loss of R1.38bn in this period, a figure that was reduced by cost cutting measures such as route cancellations and retrenchments.

It reveals that SAA needs a going-concern guarantee of around R5bn to finalise its financial statements for 2014-15 and could need a further guarantee for the 2015-16 financial year.

“Although the airline has used up all but R99m of the R14.394bn guarantees provided since 2007, according to the quarterly report, it was unlikely to run out of guarantee capacity,” the report said. “SAA will, however, need new funding by December.”

DA demands SAA publish annual report

The leaked report comes as the stalemate between Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni is rapidly driving SAA to total collapse, according to the Democratic Alliance (DA).

DA shadow deputy minister of finance Alf Lees said the tabling of SAA's annual financial statements is no longer a question of time, but a matter of a "very much delinquent board".

He was reacting to Parliament's tabling last Monday of Gordhan's letter requesting a fourth extension in the last 10 months for a delay in the deadline for the tabling of these results.

He said the DA formally requested the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim, to seek a legal opinion regarding Parliament’s authority in law to grant such an extension.

"It is in our contention that there is no provision made in the Public Finance Management Act whereby Parliament is given the authority to extend the deadline. Parliament must give effect to this deadline and interrogate these long overdue financials."

SAA has received a number of government bailouts worth at least R14.4bn as part of its turnaround strategy, but Gordhan warned in January the carrier cannot become a liability on the fiscus.

SAA could lose billions in savings over halted deal

The financial statement leak comes a day after the Sunday Times reported another controversial move by the SAA board, following the cancelled BnP Capital deal in June and the wobbly Airbus swap deal in December 2015.

SAA and its low-cost airline Mango could lose billions of rands for not concluding a direct lease agreement with Macquarie, an international aviation firm.

The SAA board allegedly rejected a deal with Macquarie that would have saved SAA R1.3bn and Mango R1bn, the Sunday Times reported.

SAA leases four Boeing 737s from Macquarie and then sub-leases these to Mango. In the halted deal, Mango wanted to extend this lease and hire two more 737s until 2023, while the company was going to waive return conditions for the aircraft.

However, Myeni allegedly halted the deal and requested a breakdown of Macquarie’s empowerment credentials. Her move has apparently fuelled fears she wants to involve a finance house like BnP Capital in the deal.

SAA dramas could lead SA to junk status - DA


This was yet another nail in the coffin of a dying SAA, according to Lees in a statement on Sunday.

“Minister Gordhan has not been able to implement the turnaround plan that he announced in February 2016, seemingly blocked by President (Jacob) Zuma,” he said, referring to Zuma’s close friendship with Myeni.

“This plan included the restructuring of the SAA board, the possible partial privatisation of SAA and the amalgamation of SAA with SA Express.

“Consequently, the minister has resisted the attempts by SAA to obtain further funding guarantees from the state. The stalemate seems now to be between Minister Gordhan and President Zuma – in the meantime Ms Myeni is rapidly driving SAA to total collapse,” he said.

“The SAA saga continues to have an impact on the chances of a ratings downgrade later this year,” he said.

“SAA simply cannot continue to trade under financially distressed circumstances, requiring yet another bailout from the taxpayer or facing liquidation because of the president’s personal and improper relationship with Myeni.

“If Zuma continues to impede the Minister of Finance from taking control of the national carrier it will be entirely justifiable for international ratings agencies to have little faith in Gordhan being able to manage the South African economy.”


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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 14 Sep 2016, 15:48 
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Balerit wrote:
Acting SAA Chief Executive Officer Nico Bezuidenhout has announced the airline’s 90 Day Action Plan - a rapid implementation plan intent in steering SAA back to full implementation of its Long Term Turnaround Strategy (LTTS).

http://traveller24.news24.com/News/Flights/SAA-assembles-new-war-cabinet-to-solve-crisis-20141210


So what went wrong ??

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-zuma-to-answer-mps-questions-20160913

Quote:
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan confirms SAA sustained a massive loss


Godhan says SA would be insolvent with state guarantees
Gordhan confirms R4bn loss at SAA
Problems at SAA are bigger than one person


So who want a free Airline, PS, you take take the Debt with.


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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 17 Mar 2017, 15:37 
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http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Industrial/revealed-saa-bleeding-billions-more-than-first-reported-20170317



Quote:
REVEALED: SAA bleeding billions more than first reported
Mar 17 2017 13:21 Matthew le Cordeur


Cape Town – South African Airways (SAA) has revised its budgeted loss forecast for 2016/17 to R3.5bn from an earlier estimate of R1.7bn, documents sent to Parliamentarians on Friday reveal.

In a question sent to the SAA board from the standing committee on finance, which has oversight of the state-owned airline, the committee assumed that SAA had reduced its operating losses for the year under review.

It asked: “How sustainable is this reduction should the external economic environment become unfavourable?”

The SAA board responded, clarifying that "the company has not reduced its losses for the year under review”.

“The budgeted loss for 2016/17 was set at R 1.7bn but the revised forecast refers to an expected loss of R3.5bn,” the board said.

“The company will be focused on growing its revenues and to continue to apply cost compression initiatives,” it added. “It operates in a very competitive industry and the company is aware of the risks from external factors to its business and the airline industry.”

In September, the government granted SAA an additional going-concern guarantee of R4.7bn, increasing its total guarantees to R19.1bn.

“SAA has used R3.5bn of a R4.7bn going-concern guarantee, with the remainder likely to be used in 2017/18,” Treasury said in its 2017 Budget Review.

Democratic Alliance MP Alf Lees told Fin24 on Friday that the added loss “will represent a real cash loss as it will not contain the R1.9bn Airbus deal impairments that contributed to the R4.9bn loss in the 2014/15 year”.

“It is a massive increase of a R2bn increased loss when compared with the R1.5bn loss declared in the 2015/16 year.

“The question here is whether this loss was massaged down to make the old SAA board - and Ms Dudu Myeni , the chair, in particular - look like they were making good progress?

“The new board of SAA has clearly not been able to turn SAA around or even just stem the massive losses. The board is hamstrung by the poor and incompetent leadership of its chair Dudu Myeni.

'SAA will be back with the begging bowl'

“There is no doubt that these massive losses will undoubtedly mean that SAA will once again run out of cash. SAA will be back with the begging bowl to get another government guarantee handout.”

He called on Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan not to provide any further financial assistance to SAA.

“SAA can only be saved if immediately put under business rescue and action taken to achieve a private equity deal that would result in capital revenue for the shareholder and thus the taxpayer,” he said.

“The DA has asked that SAA produce a cash flow analysis for the 12 months of the current 2017/18 financial year. This will enable the full extent of the bankruptcy of SAA to be seen.

“The DA is even more convinced that the only way to stop the non-stop losses is to put the airline into business rescue, and we will therefore make every effort to ensure the minister of finance takes immediate action to achieve this.”

In its Budget Review, Treasury said SAA “pared its losses from R5.6bn in 2014/15 to R1.5bn in 2015/16. The improvement resulted mainly from lower fuel prices and lower asset impairments”.

Those pared-down losses would now seem to have been a lot less with the revised R3.5bn amount.

Treasury said SAA “remains technically insolvent”.

“Government continues to help SAA secure funding with its existing lenders,” it said. “A new board, appointed in September 2016, finalised the 2014/15 and 2015/16 annual financial statements as required by law.

“The board is finalising the recruitment process for a chief executive officer and a chief financial officer. The process will be submitted for government’s consideration and approval.

Constraints expected to persist over the medium term

“SAA’s liquidity constraints are expected to persist over the medium term. Government will work closely with the board to reduce associated risks. During 2017/18, government will provide some financial support to SAA in a manner that does not increase the budget deficit.

“The support will strengthen the new board’s ability to effect a comprehensive turnaround strategy that allows SAA to function on a financially sustainable basis.”

Treasury said advisers are assisting government with a review of SAA’s assets. “The review is expected to be complete by the end of March 2017. The goal is to develop a stronger, more efficient and sustainable state aviation sector,” it said.

“The possibility of merging SAA with South African Express, and introducing a strategic equity partner, will be considered.”

In its appendix in the review, Treasury said that “with support from the National Treasury, SAA has secured funding to allow the board time to review and strengthen its turnaround plan, and take steps to stabilise the airline and return it to financial sustainability”.

“The board is finalising the recruitment process for the chief executive officer and the chief financial officer positions so that recommendations can be submitted to the shareholder for consideration.

“The minister of finance has stressed to the SAA board that urgent action is required for the airline to operate sustainably.

“This includes the board reviewing and strengthening the airline's strategy to accelerate the turnaround and to ensure its robustness in the context of increasing competition and volatility in the fuel price and exchange rates.

“During this ‘business unusual’ period, SAA will remain under intense government oversight through weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings.”


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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 17 Mar 2017, 18:59 
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Last sentence of article. I think government oversight is exactly the problem....


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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 20 Jun 2017, 09:01 
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http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Industrial/saa-airbus-deal-myeni-made-a-simple-mistake-says-lawyer-20170619

Quote:
SAA Airbus deal: 'Myeni made a simple mistake'
Jun 19 2017 13:46

Pretoria – South African Airways (SAA) board chairperson Dudu Myeni made a simple mistake when she signed off on an Airbus deal for two aircraft instead of 10, a tribunal was told.

At the Companies Tribunal at the Department of Trade and Industry on Monday, Myeni’s counsel Francois van Zyl argued that she acted reasonably in her capacity as board chairperson.

In November 2016, the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (CIPC) issued Myeni a notice of compliance. Myeni complied with the notice under protest as a safeguard against criminal prosecution, Van Zyl said.

He went on to argue that the notice was invalidly issued, as there was no action for Myeni to cease, rectify or reverse as she had corrected the misunderstanding about the aircraft by July 2016.

READ: OUTA turns to court to declare SAA's Dudu Myeni 'delinquent'
The Democratic Alliance and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) are taking Myeni to task by questioning her actions as board chairperson. OUTA filed an application to the North Gauteng High Court to have Myeni declared delinquent over the airline’s failures under her watch, with the Airbus deal among these.

But Van Zyl says although there was “room for confusion” concerning the number of aircraft that needed to be financed, he said that Myeni had sought clarity by approaching the company secretary before signing off. Thereafter a letter was set to the minister of public enterprises (Malusi Gigaba) to inform him of the mistake that there were 10 aircraft in question and not two.

He said it could not be said that she intentionally misled the minister, because there had been a misunderstanding. “If she did so innocently, then bona fides [good faith] comes into play.”

However, the panel - consisting of PJ Veldhuizen, Bongi Zulu and Khashane Manamela - asked whether Myeni, as an experienced director, had acted with diligence and care before signing off on the matter which involved a significant amount of money.

Van Zyl said that Myeni would have acted unreasonably by singing off on her own accord without consultation. The fact that she approached the company secretary, who gave her an explanation that “satisfied” her, and then wrote a second letter to the minister to inform him of the mistake, shows her reasonable behaviour.

He acknowledged that no formal meeting was held to overturn the resolution about the aircraft. He agreed that it appears there was a lack of skill and due diligence, but he pointed out the context surrounding the matter, such as that the aircraft had to be financed urgently.

“When we look at the purpose of the compliance notice to rectify the effect of the contravention, or to cease or reverse, none of that could be done by end of November 2016, all had been corrected,” he said.

Regarding Myeni’s decision to challenge the compliance notice, Veldhuizen asked if Myeni could simply have written a letter to indicate her intention to challenge, instead of complying first and then challenging. Van Zyl agreed that that could have been done instead
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 Post subject: Re: SAA News
PostPosted: 26 Jun 2017, 18:00 
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Some pics of SAA in the old livery...dating back to the 70’s, primarily at Louie Botha Airport, Durban.

Louie Botha Aiport – Durban. 1977
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Louie Botha Aiport – Durban. 1977
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J G Strydom Airport, Windhoek. 1978

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Louie Botha Airport – Durban 1977

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