South Africa’s National Treasury confirmed the appointment of Vodacom Group executive Vuyani Jarana as the first permanent CE of South African Airways since Nov 2015. Jarana will take the helm at the carrier when Vodacom releases him of his duties, the Treasury said Thursday. The debt-laden airline has failed to make a profit since 2011 and was handed a bailout last month after National Treasury transferred funds to help it avoid a default on its debt to Standard Chartered. Finance minister Malusi Gigaba said that the assistance given to SAA, was dependent on naming a new CE and for the airline to implement a “strict” turnaround strategy. “We believe he will be key in turning around SAA” given how he improved the performance of the Vodacom Business Africa unit, Gigaba said Thursday. <br/>
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Air India believes it is an "operationally viable" airline as compared to 2 years ago, but is still concerned about its financial situation. Airline chairman and MD Ashwani Lohani says that despite making an operating profit of INR1.05b (US$15.7m) for the 2016 financial year and forecasting that it operating profit will grow threefold in its next financial year, the carrier's financial situation "has not stabilised at all". "We still have a huge amount of money needed to be repaid as interest for borrowings…amounting to INR40b annually. That is what's pulling us down," Lohani adds. "We are an operationally viable airline, but not financially viable." Lohani is confident that divestment will help Air India with a "complete turnaround", but acknowledges that the carrier's accumulated debt of INR550b "will not be easy to handle." <br/>
SIA is offering a scheme for its cabin crew to go on voluntary no-pay leave (VNPL) for 3 months starting from September to address a “temporary crew surplus situation”. SIA confirmed Thursday that it is rolling out the voluntary scheme to its 8,200 cabin crew. It added that having temporary surplus or deficits in cabin crew numbers is "not unusual" due to the nature of its business. The carrier said that the purpose of the scheme is to ensure the airline efficiently manages crew resources and operational requirement. The airline's CE Goh Choon Phong said in June that SIA may cut jobs as part of a business review after swinging to a S$138m net loss in its Q4. Goh added that the SIA staff were aware a reduction of headcount was possible under the review process. <br/>