SAA Is Getting A New Business Class Product... If They Don't Liquidate

Were all the recent CEOS black or white?

I see this problem in ever country. Kick the whites out, get independence (some form of it) and then turn on their own people and steal and kill and rape them.

Happens in most African countries, most south American countties and quite a few Asian countries.

It was announced that the SA government is giving SAA another $350 million loan:
http://atwonline.com/airlines/south-african-airways-gets-350-million-bailout-major-reforms-needed

This decision is symbolic of SAA’s mismanagement. Surely if their only long-haul routes that can be profitable are long, thin routes, then 787s would be more appropriate to update their fleet?

You’ve said before SAA faces similar problems to Qantas in regards to their ‘end-of-the-line’ geographical disadvantage. They have almost no intl connecting traffic. QF has managed to completely turn its financial situation around by dramatically cutting costs (including making a huge proportion of its bloated middle management redundant) without any noticeable change to the customer experience (unlike BAs monthly ‘enhancements’) as well as increasing aircraft utilisation, retiring both inefficient aircraft and unprofitable routes, increasing codeshares, as well as investing in smart new aircraft to rejuvenate the fleet. They also have an extremely profitable, very poor value loyalty program that is somehow very well regarded.

QF has always been a premium brand that Australians respect and love and has focused on continuing to be premium (again, unlike BA).

The lessons SAA could learn from QF:

- Retire aircraft and routes that don’t make money immediately;
- Find a better airline than you to operate routes you cant/cant make money on (EY?)
- Invest in efficient new aircraft
- Assuming SAA is respected as a premium brand in its home market, continue that premium feeling with new hard and soft products
- Reduce staff members – I would be amazed if there was any change to the product with a 20% reduction in staff
- Stay in *A – that is your greatest asset
- Hell, they could even offer Christop Mueller the job but I doubt he would take it after all the corruption at MH.

Despite this advice, I expect SAA will go down the MH route of increased losses, continued mismanagement and corruption, and the airline will fold with the country regretting it for decades to come.

If CAPA website hasve not done an analysis piece on SAA they should – it would be fascinating and their analysts are usually spot on.

@Credit, unfortunately your racism is not supported by fact. There have been a number of CEOs of SAA in the past 5 years; some white, some black. The longest serving was Nico Bezuidenhout, who is white. The Chief Financial Officer has also been white.

The growth of Middle Eastern carriers has more of an impact on SAA than race.

I'm actually going to get to fly the new business class product in February from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo, so I'm really excited about it! It's replacing an A330-200 with the angled seats on that route, which hopefully means a much better sleeping experience for my wife and I. We are on an SAA A340-600 on the way out from JFK, so at least I will have experienced their two best hard products.

I don't know about Munich, but Latam is flying a 763 from GRU to JNB, so, at least theoretically, the A330 should be able to do it...

@Credit Were most racists in recent history white or black?

I see this problem in every country. Whites come in, kill, enslave, and rape native people (usually all three), natives fight to get basic freedoms, and after using their labor to amass wealth, whites turn on them and tell them to get over the past. This happens in most African countries, most South American countries, and quite a few Asian countries.

By most, I mean pretty much all of them.

@CTravlr - Well played, madam/sir, well played indeed. Brilliant, actually.

Thank you for that bit of precision correction and clarification.

I flew São Paulo - Johannesburg last week (in coach) and that was the shittiest plane I had been on in I don't know how long. I'm guessing the seatback entertainment system was at least 10 years old. On the way back, virtually everyone in the back had the 4 seat middle row to themselves.

I saw pictures of the airplane and it will indeed be reverse herringbone seats.

The longest serving was Nico Bezuidenhout, who is white. He was the ceo of mango the low cost saa airline not the mainline saa airline. get the facts right.

Hi Andy!

Let us know what seat configuration it ends up. We're flying JNB-ACC-IAD in November and wanted to get a head start on the seats. Excited for first time in Africa!!!

With SAA, it is not the CEO who is generally the problem, rather the current Chairperson is unqualified (no airline experience) and wields a huge amount of power. This is why CEO turnover is what it is. Due to close personal ties to the corrupt SA president there is no getting rid of her. SAA hard product is not bad, pilots ,crew and maintenance good. The political interference must go before SAA can turn themselves around. It is a sad state of affairs and I have stopped flying them both in SA and internationally due to the unacceptable political interference.