The future of loss-making South African Airways is in the spotlight today amid fears that the carrier is close to collapse.
South Africa’s public enterprises ministry said it was working with the struggling state airline to ensure that it could continue to operate.
SAA suffered a crippling strike earlier this month which pushed the airline to the brink, although services started being restored last weekend.
The ministry said: “The strike at SAA with consequential cancellation of bookings has resulted in a sudden deterioration of SAA’s financial position.
“The Department of Public Enterprises is working together with SAA to urgently formulate immediate actions to enable SAA to carry on its business.”
The board of SAA was due to present a “comprehensive report on the state of the airline” to the country’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) yesterday but the meeting was deferred.
A statement from the airline said: “Given the significant and ongoing developments in respect of the sustainability of the airline, SAA welcomes the deferment of their appearance at Scopa.
“This will enable further urgent engagement with all relevant role players on the support initiatives being developed under the direction of the shareholder.
“Arrangements are being finalised for Scopa to visit SAA next week. All information requested has been submitted to the shareholder.
”SAA refutes any suggestion that it has not cooperated fully with parliament.”
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