Chief executive officer of South African Airways (SAA), John Lamola, has resigned, effective 30 April 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following a board meeting, the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, in her capacity as shareholder representative, together with the SAA Board, accepted the resignation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lamola took up the top position as the airline emerged from business rescue and navigated the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creecy noted that, under his stewardship, SAA implemented a disciplined, focused rebuilding strategy, restoring operations and re-establishing its position in a highly competitive global aviation market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his tenure, the airline expanded its fleet from five to 19 aircraft and grew its route network from six to 17 destinations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This included the reintroduction of key international routes such as S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, and Perth, Australia, alongside the strengthening of its domestic footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cProfessor Lamola has played a pivotal role in rebuilding South African Airways and positioning it for sustained success,” the SAA board said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“His leadership during a complex and demanding period has left a lasting and positive legacy on the organisation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matshela Seshibe, the Chief Executive Officer of SAA\u2019s subsidiary company, Air Chefs, has been appointed as the Acting Group CEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group said the process to recruit the permanent Group CEO will commence shortly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chief executive officer of South African Airways (SAA), John Lamola, has resigned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":856657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25170,1675],"class_list":["post-856656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-john-lamola","tag-saa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856659,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856656\/revisions\/856659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}