SAA will still need billions of rand in bailouts

2 August 2018

The joint announcement by Ministers of Finance and Public Enterprises that South African Airways has been transferred to Public Enterprises comes as no surprise but in itself makes not an iota of difference to the fortunes of SAA.

Changing the department that is responsible for SAA will not make the airline profitable. SAA will still require taxpayer bailouts of R 5,45 billion in 2018, R 5,18 billion in 2019 and R 1,93 billion in 2020 to fund the ongoing SAA losses that the turn-around strategy includes. These losses exclude the losses from the bankrupt SA Xpress that simply add to the demands on taxpayers for bailouts of the state-owned aviation “liabilities”

The announcement by the Ministers of Finance and Public Enterprises makes reference to a study done to develop the optimal group structure for state-owned aviation assets. This study must be made public and I have written to the Minister of Finance to request a copy of this study.

Issued by Alf Lees, DA Deputy Shadow Minister of Finance, 2 August 2018