Fin24 reports that employees of low-cost state-owned airline Mango did not get salary payments for June – but fellow SA Airways (SAA) subsidiary SAA Technical (SAAT) did manage to pay full salaries for the month.

An industry insider advised that SAAT managed to obtain bridge funding for salaries for May and June. SAAT is, however, undergoing a retrenchment process, which is not the case at Mango.  Mango's staff have for months had either partial or late salary payments as the airline struggles for survival. The SAA board is not allowing Mango to open ticket sales longer in advance. This means flights end up with very low passenger load factors, impacting the funds that can be raised to pay salaries. Meanwhile, it is still unclear when the process to approve a Special Appropriation Bill, which will provide a lifeline for the airline, will finally be completed. The Bill will enable the transfer of R2.7 billion to SAA's subsidiaries from R10.5 billion originally allocated in the mini-budget last year to implement SAA's business rescue plan. Unlike SAA, its subsidiaries Mango, SAAT and Air Chefs, did not go into business rescue. Mango's management is apparently still trying to see if salary payments can be made by the end of the month,

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Carin Smith at Fin24

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