South African Airways CEO, Vuyani Jarana, briefed the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises on Tuesday (27 November) – detailing his progress in implementing the airline\u2019s turnaround strategy.<\/p>\n
Jarana said that in the 2017\/18 financial year SAA incurred more losses than budgeted due to its inability to execute its strategy.<\/p>\n
In addition, he outlined seven of the key issues currently facing the embattled national carrier and how it was hampering his turnaround plan.<\/p>\n
These include:<\/p>\n
SAA informed the committee that it has revised its strategy and turnaround plan to build a commercially focused airline with customer experience as its cornerstone.<\/p>\n
The approved 2019\/2023 corporate plan forecasts to break even by the 2021 financial year, it said.<\/p>\n
The airline will incur financial losses of R5.2 billion and R1.9 billion for the financial years 2018\/19 and 2019\/20, respectively and thereafter SAA expects to be profitable for the remainder of the five-year period.<\/p>\n
During the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, the airline received an additional R5 billion special appropriation to help the airline pay off its debt.<\/p>\n
On the government guarantees that the airline requires, the committee questioned if the guarantees required will be able to keep SAA liquid.<\/p>\n
Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan, said banks want government guarantees but also want to know the plans that are in place to be able to turn the national carrier around.<\/p>\n