Cash-strapped state-owned airline South African Express has suspended its flights from Johannesburg to East London and Port Elizabeth‚ as well as from Cape Town to Durban.
The suspension will come into effect on Saturday October 15 2016‚ according to a trade notice reported on travel portal FlightSite.co.za.
All passengers affected by the suspensions will be accommodated on Mango and South African Airways (SAA)‚ according to the report.
In September‚ it was reported that SA Express was unable to convince the auditor-general that it could meet the solvency and liquidity tests of the Companies Act, and that it could continue to operate as a going concern.
Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown broke the news to speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete. Brown said she was therefore unable to table the airline’s 2015-16 annual financial statements.
SAA was in a similar position for about a year as it waited for the Treasury to grant it a going-concern guarantee of R4.7bn, which it did early in October. This brought the airline’s total guarantee to R19bn.
SA Express is also dependent on state guarantees‚ which amount to R1.1bn. It required an additional guarantee in 2014-15 to fund its working capital and asset-based finance facilities.
In April‚ SA Express’s operator certificate was suspended for 42 hours after the airline failed to meet the South African Civil Aviation Authority’s systems quality-assurance requirements.
(culled from www.bdlive.co.za)
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