Poor times for SA’s airlines

Airline 1Time Holdings filed for business rescue with its board saying the airline is “financially distressed”. The firm has about R320 million in short-term debt and had been in negotiations with creditors since early this year.
While the low-cost airline would continue with its scheduled services, nobody knows what the future holds for the airline that says in its website: No credit? Pay with your debit card and fly now!
Another low-cost airline, Velvet Sky, went into liquidation after failing to convince a court that it was a candidate for business rescue earlier this year.
Last year the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco, which represents 95% of taxi operators in SA) made their initial announcement in June saying they will launch a new low-cost airline called Santaco Airlines in September 2011, but earlier this month Santaco Airlines’ Chief Executive, Nonkululeko Buthelezi, said that Santacto Airlines hopes to commence flights in July next year. Shame!
Not that our existing state funded airlines are doing much better. Last week the South African Airways (SAA) had to make a u-turn (thankfully not in the air) after admitting that they only want black cadet pilots. Facing court orders, they lifted the ban on applications by whites. Apparently they wanted their pilots race ratio to reflect the population. We think it should reflect the passengers.
Not to be outdone by SAA, the national carrier’s little bastard sister, SA Express, with their propeller driven bookkeeping lost its entire board of directors because their auditors was unable verify more than R1-bn in accounting adjustments in the 2010/2011 financial year.
Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba sacked the board and requested an inquest. Now the question remains if the poor airline’s management knew about the bungling or were merely incompetent. We say if they did not make money disappear deliberately, chances are the latter is the obvious answer. Ai tog!