AFTER a week of unreturned messages and follow-up calls, vice-president (vp) of corporate communications, Victor Nosi, has informed Travel Now that South African Airways (SAA) has decided to decline commenting on last week's sudden resignation and hasty departure of its vp global sales, David James.
"All I can say is that he had his own reasons for resigning and SAA has a policy of not responding to unsubstantiated gossip concerning industry rumours."
Nosi further said that SAA had decided not to release a statement to the media as "top managers resign and move around all the time", and that it would not be appropriate to "make an issue" out of this one case.
He confirmed that executive vp, Andre Viljoen, had taken up James' responsibilities in the interim, that the global and domestic sales structure was currently being reviewed and that it was still not clear whether James' position would be filled at a later stage.
"When there are moves made in that, or any other direction, we will inform staff internally."
(Adele Mackenzie)