SAA Bankrupt.

Hi,

Listening and reading how poor SAA, SA Express and Mango, yes they all fall under SAA are asking for a bail out bringing their collective debt to about R50 billion and not one has ever really made a profit, just creative accounting. I ask the public one question Did you know that SAA was instrumental with some help of ****ing off and bankrupting over NINE private airlines since 1980 in South Africa alone. This cost Thousands of employees their jobs including myself. SAA did absolutely nothing to help these poor people, they just carried on in their usual way overstaffed, overpaid and underworked. The average SAA salary for pilots is 30% higher than Comair and 40% higher than FlySafair. By cutting routes SAA has now got hundreds of pilots sitting on the ground at home costing taxpayers over R2.4 million plus per pilot per year, wow what a waste of money.

Lets list some of the airlines that SAA has Destroyed in some way or another :

National Airlines Natal. Magnum Airlines. Phoenix Airlines. Flightstar. Avia Airlines. Sunair 1. Sunair 2. One Time Airlines. Nationwide Airlines? Velvet Sky.

Whilst you and I as a taxpayer are funding a non salvageable non-profitable government Airline. Every time one of us fly SAA we actually have paid for the ticket many times over even before you pay again.

So ask yourself why are we funding such an enterprise when that money could be better put to use fixing Eskom. Millions of South Africans need Electricity for homes, businesses etc but only a few thousand fly on SAA? New aircraft (Airbus 350’s) only save about 3% in operating costs! British Airways Mainline still uses Boeing 747-400 aircraft that SAA sold off decades ago and they can still make a profit. ( Three flights/aircraft a day Cape Town to the UK and back & SAA Zero flights!)

You say go on strike! I say close this ageing dinosaur and use our Tax revenue where it benefits South Africans the most. Business rescue is only delaying the inevitable, their threatened strikes are pathetic. Think about how many lives you destroyed on your way to Bankruptcy.

C. McWilliams (ex B738NG Captain). Type to enter text Type to enter text