By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The government will formally reintroduce South African Airways (SAA) in Cape Town on Thursday, 26 October, marking the airline’s two-year return.
The event will also announce the reinstatement of its direct routes to São Paulo, Brazil.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said the relaunch was a milestone for the airliner which had run into turbulence after it was grounded for 16 months and underwent business rescue and averted liquidation.
“The upcoming event marks a very significant step in the resurgence of South African Airways. We look forward to the official relaunch of SAA, along with the introduction of its first intercontinental flight to São Paulo, Brazil,” Gordhan said.
In a statement earlier this year, SAA revealed that it will fly four times a week to São Paulo with two flights each departing from Cape Town and Johannesburg.
At the time, SAA Interim CEO, Professor John Lamola, said the airliner took the decision to introduce the long haul flight following thorough sustainability analysis.
“We are overjoyed to announce São Paulo as our first international destination since the airline successfully emerged from an intensive Business Rescue process and COVID-19 lockdown. It also marks our return of our long-haul service out of Cape Town. The teams at SAA are working hard behind the scenes to gear our operations for this much-anticipated route launch to South America.”
“Our decision to begin the relaunch of our long-haul service with São Paulo was taken based on a rigorous analysis of the viability of the route. Sustainability has been at the heart of SAA’s approach since our restart,” he said.
The first flight to the South American country is expected to depart from Cape Town next Tuesday with the Johannesburg flight to follow suit on November 6.
Meanwhile Gordhan has denied claims of political meddling at the running of state-owned enterprises.
The minister answered questions from MPs in Parliament on Wednesday.
Gordhan told MPs he will not resign despite the impact of the leadership crises at Eskom and Transnet, and the impact it has on the country’s economy.
“I am not going anywhere until the end of this term, I accept responsibility, that is why we are changing boards where it is appropriate, boards are saying go if you cant perform, because the level of performance is not good for the country, entity. So we act where is necessary.
“I don’t have time for political meddling, we need to understand what are the failures are and what are the route causes and give attention to that, state capture has damaged these institutions, it would take a longtime to fix them.
“These are broken institutions but we will fix them. I am confident that things will improve and where there are lapses we will act against people who are responsible.”