BL Premium reports that pilots at SA Airways (SAA) say they are willing to embark on a lawful strike to save the indebted national carrier.  

SAA Pilots Association (Saapa) chair Grant Back said on Thursday that their intention was not to add to the SAA’s problems.  On the contrary, “our goal is to put an end to the continual pressure on the fiscus in the form of bailouts and guarantees and, ultimately, to help put the airline on the road to recovery.”  The airline has amassed more than R18bn of losses since 2015 and is seeking about R22bn in government bailouts over the next three years.  In June, Saapa began the process of canvassing its members on their perception of management at SAA.  The survey was carried out by an independent service provider and a total of 516 of the 635 (81%) pilots responded.  The findings showed that 91% of pilots said operations management was “poor” to “extremely poor”, 96% were in favour of taking a “proactive stand” to force change at the airline and 90% backed protected industrial action to enforce a higher standard within SAA.  “It needs to be understood that the decision to embark on industrial action is not one that the pilots of SAA will take lightly,” said Back.  He added however that the pilots and Saapa leadership could not allow the airline to continue as if it was business as usual.  “The bottom line is that SAA will not recover unless critical operational and technical deficiencies are immediately addressed by a strong leadership team,” Back said.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Bekezela Phakathi at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

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