page_title: South African Airways
section_title: Financial difficulties and bankruptcy: 2012–present
hierarchical_section_title: South African Airways / History / Financial difficulties and bankruptcy: 2012–present
caption_attribution_description: English: Operating Flight SA203, a South African Airways Airbus A350-900XWB has landed on Runway 31R at John F. Kennedy International Airport, just before sunrise.Afrikaans: Operasionele vlug SA203, 'n Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens Airbus A350-900XWB, het net voor sonop op landloopbaan 31R op die John F. Kennedy Internasionale Lughawe beland.
context_page_description: South African Airways is the state-owned flag carrier airline of South Africa. Headquartered in Airways Park at O.R Tambo International Airport, the airline operates a hub-and-spoke network, linking over 40 local and international destinations across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania from its base at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. The carrier joined Star Alliance in April 2006, making it the first African carrier to sign with one of the three airline alliances.
context_section_description: On 24 February 2012 SAA's new Airbus A320-200, registration ZS-SZZ, made its first revenue flight between Johannesburg and Durban. There were twelve A320 in the fleet as of December 2016. On 16 August 2012, SAA ended its twenty-year-old Cape Town-London route, due to declining passenger numbers and increasing airport taxes.
  SAA began flights to Beijing, China on 31 January 2012. Buenos Aires flights ended in 2013 and in January 2015, SAA announced plans to end its non-stop services to Beijing and Mumbai. Services to China were replaced by Star Alliance partner Air China with a flight to Beijing. In June 2015, the acting CEO stated that Hong Kong, Munich, Frankfurt and Perth are the only profitable long-haul routes; all others are loss-making.
  In September 2017, SAA began reducing its fleet and expected to cut 23% of its flights. Standard Chartered Bank was the first bank in June 2017 to call in its loan. The South African government provided R2.2 billion to settle the debt. Citibank was the second bank to refuse extending the loan facility. Together with some others, another R7.7 billion became payable at the end of September 2017. The South African treasury asked the Public Investment Corporation, which controls government pension funds, for R100 billion to help bailout state-owned enterprises, including SAA.
  On 5 December 2019, the Government of South Africa announced that SAA would enter into bankruptcy protection, as the airline has not turned a profit since 2011 and ran out of money. In January 2020, South African Airways announced that it will suspend several routes, e.g. to Munich in order to reduce its financial struggle. In February 2020, the airline introduced its first of four newly leased Airbus A350-900s in an attempt to modernize its loss-making long-haul fleet.
  On 5 December 2019, SAA was placed under business rescue.  Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana were appointed as the Business Rescue Practitioners of SAA In December 2019. A Business Recovery Plan was expected by the end of February 2020, extended, then postponed.  A final plan is yet to be presented.
  In April 2020, following a request for further emergency financing due the COVID-19 pandemic, the South African government announced it would stop funding the airline with immediate effect. The airline then announced plans to lay off all remaining staff by the end of the month, sparking fears the firm was on the brink of liquidation.
  As of 1 May 2020, all SAA staff members are on unpaid leave of absence, including those who are reporting for duty - no pay for the 4708 workforce. Unaudited financial statements presented in a draft report show  SAA made losses of almost R16Bn in the last 3 years. SAA received R50 bn of government assistance between 2004 and 2020.
  On May 2, The Government of South Africa announced that South African Airways would be ceasing operations after 86 years of service and that a new flagship carrier would be created for South Africa out of the ashes of the former airline. The liquidation process was set to begin on May 8, however a legal battle between the liquidators and the workforce delayed the proceedings indefinitely.
  In July, the creditors voted to accept the restructuring plan and the airline has avoided liquidation.
  Full domestic network to be reinstated by December 2020.
  On August 21st 2020, The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has appointed Rand Merchant Bank to help with negotiations with private entities interested in buying into the country’s insolvent national carrier, which needs at least R10 billion to resume operations.
caption: South African Airways Airbus A350-900 in the current colour scheme arriving in New York
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