SAA, prepare for the mother of all strikes.
SAA to cancel flights due to strike
South African Airways (SAA) has cancelled domestic, regional and international flights scheduled for Friday, November 15 and Saturday, November 16.
Passengers are advised to not go to their departure airports during the disruption as SAA will be unable to provide any assistance.
“Information on the status of our flights will be regularly updated on our website,” according to a statement from the airline.
Only flights operated by South African Airways will be affected, while Mango, SA Express, Airlink and codeshare partners, including flights operated by SAA’s Star Alliance partner airlines will operate as normal.
Regional flights, which will operate on Friday morning, will return from Maputo (SA147), Lusaka (SA067), Harare (SA025), Windhoek (SA073), and Accra (SA210).
International flights, which will operate on Friday evening, will return from Frankfurt (SA261), New York (SA204), Munich (SA265), Hong Kong (SA287), Perth (SA281), and London (SA235).
Customers will be kept informed.
Last updated at 07:50
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the South African Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) plan to embark on industrial action against SAA, starting Friday, November 15.
Zazi Nsibanyoni, Sacca’s President, says SAA’s leadership has received the strike notice.
“The strike could last indefinitely, until the demands of the unions are met”, said Zazi.
In response to the notice, SAA has released a statement reiterating that “any strike endangers the future of the airline and threatens jobs”.
“We have offered employees, through their unions, a 5,9% salary increase subject to the availability of funds,” said acting CEO, Zuks Ramasia. Numsa and Sacca are demanding an 8% increase.
“The strike will result in a set of circumstances from which there may well be no recovery,” she said.
If every single staff union member goes ahead with plans for industrial action, SAA could very well shut down.
This was stressed by SAA’s interim CFO, Deon Frederick, at a question-and- answer session following a media briefing on Tuesday.
“We have a full contingency plan in place, but if it happens it will place our company in significant risk. It may even lead to closure of the company because ultimately suppliers will look at this and say, should I continue to promote this service? That’s why we are urging the unions to engage in consultations to address this,” said Frederick.
“The company is very sick, it’s like a patient in the hospital”, he said. “We need now to nurse it back.”
“We’re trying to be more competitive in the market. We have to start by putting people in the right positions for growth. We’re looking at expanding, with Chief Commercial Officer Philip Saunders who is here looking at the potential for new routes,” said Frederick.
Martin Kemp, Acting HR Head of SAA, says that the airline could stand to gain approximately R700 million from the retrenchment of 900 employees.
Tourism Update asked SAA if passengers would be faced with increased fares amidst cost-cutting measures and Frederick said that SAA would address the high fare rate and actively try to lower fares as part of the restructuring. “We are at the state now where we say, if it doesn’t keep the aircraft in the air and it isn’t a pass for regulatory compliance, we don’t want to incur it at SAA.”
When asked if SAA was in talks to sell some of its equity, Frederick confirmed the airline was in the final stages of selling non-core assets. He said SAA tested the private-investment waters and “nobody was interested. [SAA] needs to stabilise the company first before major partners would interested”.
Source: http://www.tourismupdate.co.za/