SAA emerges profitably from ‘holding pattern’: CEO
South African Airways CE John Lamola believes that the Star Alliance carrier emerging profitably from its first full year of operations since resuming flights almost two years ago underlines it is in good shape to expand. SAA entered a formal business restructuring process in late 2019 amid mounting financial challenges. This process, together with ongoing travel restrictions during Covid-19, meant SAA only resumed flights in September 2021 – and did so at a much smaller scale. “We are rebuilding South African Airways and rebuilding it on a different platform altogether as a resized and repositioned airline,” Lamola tells FlightGlobal during an interview at the IATA AGM in Istanbul.<br/>“We have had a very successful year,” he adds. ”We have just closed the financial year [March 2023] which is historic, in the sense that after a long time we posted a profit, an operating profit and a net profit, both as an airline and with our two subsidiaries [catering and maintenance]. ”What drove it is the fundamental that South African Airways has come from business rescue, so not only is the balance sheet cleaner, but we have been resized. We have slashed our overheads and we have maximised the utilization of our aircraft,” he explains. Lamola also points to an innovative and flexible approach, for example noting that negotiations with lessors to retain three of its aircraft for three months during the Southern Hemisphere winter also helped lift revenues during peak season. ”One of the secrets of our success is we chose very carefully the routes we knew would be profitable,” Lamola explains, contrasting that with some of the “political” decisions of the past. ”We choose routes out of commercial considerations.” That approach is about to see the restoration of long-haul flights, starting with Perth and Sao Paulo. This fits with SAA’s mandate to fly long-haul. ”Given the geographical factors of South Africa, a country locked into the southern hemisphere at the tip of the African continent, there are imperatives for us to provide widebody, long-haul airlift. So we have a strategy that is based on providing widebody, long-haul airlift,” says Lamola. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-06-12/star/saa-emerges-profitably-from-2018holding-pattern2019-ceo
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SAA emerges profitably from ‘holding pattern’: CEO
South African Airways CE John Lamola believes that the Star Alliance carrier emerging profitably from its first full year of operations since resuming flights almost two years ago underlines it is in good shape to expand. SAA entered a formal business restructuring process in late 2019 amid mounting financial challenges. This process, together with ongoing travel restrictions during Covid-19, meant SAA only resumed flights in September 2021 – and did so at a much smaller scale. “We are rebuilding South African Airways and rebuilding it on a different platform altogether as a resized and repositioned airline,” Lamola tells FlightGlobal during an interview at the IATA AGM in Istanbul.<br/>“We have had a very successful year,” he adds. ”We have just closed the financial year [March 2023] which is historic, in the sense that after a long time we posted a profit, an operating profit and a net profit, both as an airline and with our two subsidiaries [catering and maintenance]. ”What drove it is the fundamental that South African Airways has come from business rescue, so not only is the balance sheet cleaner, but we have been resized. We have slashed our overheads and we have maximised the utilization of our aircraft,” he explains. Lamola also points to an innovative and flexible approach, for example noting that negotiations with lessors to retain three of its aircraft for three months during the Southern Hemisphere winter also helped lift revenues during peak season. ”One of the secrets of our success is we chose very carefully the routes we knew would be profitable,” Lamola explains, contrasting that with some of the “political” decisions of the past. ”We choose routes out of commercial considerations.” That approach is about to see the restoration of long-haul flights, starting with Perth and Sao Paulo. This fits with SAA’s mandate to fly long-haul. ”Given the geographical factors of South Africa, a country locked into the southern hemisphere at the tip of the African continent, there are imperatives for us to provide widebody, long-haul airlift. So we have a strategy that is based on providing widebody, long-haul airlift,” says Lamola. <br/>
