BusinessLive reports that South African Airways (SAA) will cancel all domestic flights, except for a reduced service to Cape Town, as well as some international and regional flights, at the end of February in a bid to further cut costs at the ailing airline.  

Joint SAA business rescue practitioners (BRPs), Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana, said routes that would drive the restructured national carrier towards profitability had been retained.  This is the third time the airline has announced the cancellation of flights since being placed under business rescue in December, and comes after the practitioners told employees that they intended to expedite retrenchments at the airline.  As to the job losses, the BRPs said every effort was being taken to limit the impact.  “It is our intention to restructure the business in a manner that can retain as many jobs as possible.  This will help provide a platform to a viable and sustainable future.  However, a reduction in the number of employees will, unfortunately, be necessary.”  The two said that to improve the airline’s liquidity, rationalisation programmes were under consideration for SAA’s subsidiaries, as well as the sale of selected assets.  The BRPs said they would continue to explore viable investment opportunities with potential investors in respect of SAA.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Genevieve Quintal at BusinessLive

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