By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South African Express Airways, also known as SA Express (SAX) has been liquidated following several failed attempts to finalize a sale.
An order was granted in the South Gauteng High Court for its final liquidation and the order was handed down without any opposition.
SAX went into provisional liquidation in April 2020 when a business rescue attempt failed. It has not operated since.
Repeated attempts to conclude a sale of the airline have failed, and in March this year the provisional liquidators announced the reopening of the bidding process. This attempt, however, also appears to have failed.
The provisional liquidators indicated in 2020 that the amount to be raised was R50 million. At the time, the sale by the liquidators of the airline’s few tangible assets raised about R30 million.
The Fly SAX consortium, made up of former employees, offered R5 million for the intangible assets of SAX, which essentially comprised the licences and related routes.
However, early in August this year, the Air Services Licensing Council cancelled the licences of SAX on the grounds that it was not complying with the licensing provisions of the International Air Services Act. The loss of its licences means SAX has no intangible assets left either.
SAX has liabilities of more than R900 million. The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture’s report made mention of various questionable dealings linked to the airline.
The Dynamic People’s Union of South Africa (Dypusa) says it was a “sad day” for aviation in SA.
“We believe the SA government could have intervened. Now workers have no hope of returning. The aftermath of looting and state capture gave rise to the demise of this regional airline,” comments the union’s general secretary Mashudu Raphetha.
Raphetha said that the positive spin on the order for workers is that, at least through the liquidation, workers would get what little is owed to them. In the long term, however, he said that the liquidation of SA Express would compound the unemployment crisis in the country and add more pressure to the aviation sector.
The liquidation of SA Express follows closely on the closure of local airline Comair in June.
Comair shuttered in June 2022 after failing to secure the necessary funding to pull it out of financial straits, leading to its business rescue practitioners (BRPs) saying there was no longer any reasonable prospect that the company could be rescued.
The Department of Public Enterprises says it has noted with great disappointment the final liquidation order granted by the South Gauteng High Court, placing SA Express in final liquidation.