(Adding details, context)
JOHANNESBURG, March 19 (Reuters) – South African Airways (SAA) executives hope to bring the industry back into control by the end of the month, the state-owned airline said in a letter to parties affected by Reuters.
The SAA has been under some sort of breakout protection since December 2019, and its fortunes worsened through the COVID-19 pandemic. All work was put forward in September 2020 when funding was low.
The letter, dated March 18, said the SAA’s board of directors and management was working on a plan to resume flights, without giving a date when that could happen.
Administrators said they received 7.8 billion rand ($ 529 million) out of 10.5 billion rand of support allocated in October’s mid-term budget in October.
Of that, approximately 360 million rand has gone towards unpaid wages, 1.5 billion rand has been spent on severance packages and 400 million rand has been transferred to creditors who have given up. cash loan after the airline goes into administration.
Other funds are earmarked for working capital when SAA resumes operations and to pay for passengers who have already paid for tickets but have not yet traveled.
Once additional payments are made to creditors and employees or when a disposal is established, the administrators can relinquish control of the business.
Administrators said U.S. debt had fallen 35.7 billion rand since taking over and its staff had been cut from 4,700 to about 1,000.
$ 1 = 14.7496 rand Reciting by Alexander Winning. Edited by Nqobile Dludla and Mark Potter