After last week’s announcement by SAA Technical ( SAAT) that it was ceasing servicing both SAA and Mango as clients, due to issues of non-payment, with effect from September 26, SAAT on Sunday issued a statement saying an agreement had been reached with the two airlines and SAAT will continue maintaining, servicing and providing daily pre-flight checks on SAA and Mango aircraft as per usual.
The airlines’ aircraft would not have been able to fly at all without the services that SAAT provides, but Mango managed to circumvent the problem for the week by leasing aircraft.
“The decision we took to suspend services to our customers was not taken lightly. We had to protect our commercial interests which extend to the wellbeing of our employees who were adversely impacted by the cashflow challenges we experienced, resulting in payment of 25% of their salaries for the month of September,” explained SAAT ceo, Adam Voss.
SAAT is in discussions with its labour unions to arrange for the payment of the balance of salaries for the month of September.
The statement said SAA has now made a payment to SAAT and the suspension of services to the national carrier was lifted on Wednesday. SAA charter flights planned for the week ahead were consequently not impacted by last week’s suspension.
“We all appreciate that the aviation landscape has changed drastically due to the impact of Covid-19 outbreak globally. As part of recovery strategy and a way forward, we agreed with these customers that SAAT will receive upfront payment for services that must be rendered,” Adam concluded.
Discussions are ongoing with all affected customers to find solutions on how to address the legacy issues that resulted in the suspension of the maintenance services.
