South African Airways is poised to announce a radical recovery after its 2022/23 financial year end at the end of March, according to Tebogo Tsimane, Interim Chief Operating Officer, who said the airline was on track to break even.
That result would be a dramatic turnaround for the airline. In an interview with Travel News, Tsimane described the recovery as “incredible”.
While SAA’s year-end results are still subject to the relevant accounting checks and balances, Tsimane said: “SAA could break even for the financial year-end at the end of March, despite earlier projections and expectations that the airline could see losses in the region of R600 million.”
Tsimane was confident that SAA would be able to sustain the good trajectory. He said the recovery of leisure business in 2022/23 had been phenomenal, and predicted corporate travel would bounce back and drive up performance indicators in the coming financial year.
He also told Travel News that the 51% take-over deal by Takatso was still on and a gamechanger. Tsimane also maintained that the airline’s performance in 2022/23 showed it was a solid investment case.
Speaking of the coming financial results, Tsimane said they were a testament to how well the Business Rescue went for SAA. He said the removal of costs that were weighing SAA down, by the business rescue process, had been a huge help. “We are obviously mindful that there has been a significant change in the market space.”
He said the recovery of domestic business was still behind 2019, pre-COVID levels.
Tsimane told Travel News that SAA wished it had a few more aircraft. The carrier plans to double the size of its fleet this year and add more wide-body aircraft in the 2024/25 financial year as it works to revive its long-haul route network.
“We have been able to operate the routes that we are good at and take our time and not rush into things,” he said. “So far so good – and there’s more. The airline is in good hands.”
Watch Tsimane talk about SAA’s plans for long-haul route development and its impressive recovery after a “beautiful December”, in Part 1 of our video webcast here.
In part 2 of the webcast he talks about the pending 51% buy-out deal with Takatso Consortium, and more on the future of the airline – see here.
