SAA could cut some 4 700 jobs
South African Airways (SAA) has begun a process that could see the struggling national carrier cut up to 4700 jobs, the business rescue practitioners announced on Monday.
SAA has made net losses of more than R32bn since 2008 and it was recently placed under business rescue.
The flag carrier has also recently stopped flying to several domestic and international destinations in an attempt to reduce operational costs.
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In a statement, the business rescue practitioners said that SAA had issued a notice advising its employees of the intention to begin imminent consultations in terms of Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act.
This could affect 4 708 employees.
"Our intention has always been to preserve as many jobs as possible through this process while still focusing on having a sustainable airline and platform for growth,” the joint business practitioners said.
They added that the events of the few months, including a lack of funding, the grounding of SAA aircraft and the eight-day strike in November 2019, led to a decline of R1,3 billion in revenue.
“SAA has experienced numerous financial and business challenges and cumulated losses of some R26 billion over the past six years. Load factors on the airline have declined steadily from August 2019 to a low of 71% in January 2020.”
The process will not affect subsidiaries Mango, SAA Technical and Airchefs.