SAA- The Truth
An Article By Ian Kilbride, Published on 20 February 2024.
South African Airways (SAA), this year celebrates 90 years in the sky. Well, apart from the 18 months it was grounded after having been run into the ground by corruption, political interference and mismanagement. A pale facsimile of its former glory, today’s SAA is salutary case study in how not to run a state-owned business.
After literally decades of flying with the national airline locally, regionally and internationally and having experienced flying economy, business and first class on many of its major routes, I have a fair insight into the SAA passenger experience. This has ranged from the world-class, to regularly reliable, right through to deplorable. So, this week, I was more than interested in the passenger, plane and service experience from the ‘new’ SAA that is struggling to emerge phoenix like from the ashes of the Zuma, Dudu Meyeni and Gupta era.
What did I find?
Let’s start off with the pre-departure experience. This does not relate to SAA directly and more to the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA). Our major airports OR Tambo, Cape Town International and King Shaka are world class. And while security and customs officials are often in need of the latest Dale Carnegie customer relations course, I’d rather fly in and out of our local/international airports any day than many of the global city airports I experience. Though plastered with the sponsorship of a local bank, the South African Airways lounge is a pleasant experience, but could and should do more to market the airline, together with our country’s famous hospitality.
Onto the pre-boarding experience. Why when flying from Joburg to the world’s greatest tourist destination, Cape Town, was I required to walk on the tarmac and climb up a set of rickety stairs into the only SAA aircraft on the entire apron? Really? What sort of impression does SAA want to give to the thousands of passengers giving the airline a second, third of fourth chance to prove itself? It’s not at all clear what passengers would have done had we been caught in one of those highveld thunderstorms that frequently drench the airport in the late summer afternoon.
What then of the SAA passenger experience. Well, let’s start off with the positive – the crew. Rather than the sullen, dismissive, bloated, arrogant and careless cohort that came to define the SAA experience before its demise, this crew was attentive, charming and full of intent that, “this time it’s different and all is well again with the airline”. We know it’s not, but ten out of ten to this hard-working crew that is doing its best not only to provide good service, (a basic one would have thought), but actually to ‘sell’ the airline to passengers. Not literally of course, as they buy-sell agreement appears to be stuck in the proverbial mud of due diligence, as it has been for many months now, despite the assurances of the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan.
It used to be the case that the colour schemes in the SAA fleet of Airbuses would carry distinctive, colourful, but uniquely African livery. Not today. The décor of my A320 was a sort of knock off mishmash of psychedelic weaves that only an Ossie Osbourne could relate to. Perhaps we could ask for a more appropriate version from the leasing company next time?
OK, so let’s settle down and have a good read of the inflight Sawubona magazine and lo and behold its content is replete with profiles of the great and the good of the new SAA, none of whom appear to have world class airline experience, but rather an overdose of political connections. How does the saying go, “The more things change…?” Surely when rehabilitating an airline, the fist thing that needs to be built is confidence. Confidence in the aircraft, its maintenance, the pilots, the crew, and the management and directors running the operation, but no, SAA wants to impress you with their political credentials.
Paging through the Sawubona, the starkest image is the maps at the back that used to show the spiders’ network of routes and destinations covered by the airline. Sadly, today, SAA’s routes reveal a barren international globe, apart from Mauritius. Having flown Air Mauritius often, I can attest that this little airline kicks SAA’s butt, even after having gone bust during Covid!
What then is my immediate impression of the new SAA? I wish it well for our country’s sake, but I’m afraid there are simply better, more efficient, more service and passenger orientated offerings on the domestic market.
Warren Buffet and I agree that airlines are a terrible business to be in. Margins are paper plane thin; the competition is intense and often unfair, carbon tax, emissions and environmental limitation are placing further pressure on the industry and frankly the industry aircraft supplier is practically a duopoly.
So, has the new SAA any chance of success? Well, Ethiopian and Kenyan airlines have eaten our continental breakfast and as I have said, locally the competition is tough. But to have any chance whatsoever, we need to get politicians, bureaucrats and other connected political hangers on completely out of the picture. They add no value and in fact tend to interfere in the operations of what could be a successful carrier. We have repeatedly missed opportunities to partner with successful airlines, again through incompetence, corruption and political interference. One need only think of the potential of partnering with Emirates and Singapore Airlines and how different life could have been for our national airline.
In the final analysis, the government needs to make a simple decision: Do you want a failing, tax draining, albatross tarnishing our national colours across the skies or would you rather see a successful world class airline flying the flag proudly and competing on routes, price, service, reliability delivery? If it is the former, then there simply is no future for SAA and the airline should be confined to its 90-year old museum. If it is the latter, then government must get out of the way and let businesspeople lift the once proud carrier back into the African skies.
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