Sunday 28 October 2018
SA Express Makes Major Strides in Restoring the Airline’s Stability
Sunday 28 October 2018, Johannesburg: SA Express has made significant progress in the past few months as the airline accelerates its phased-in approach to restore the airline’s network and achieve commercial sustainability.
We are fully behind the shareholder’s thinking, that state-owned firms should be commercially sustainable to be able to play their rightful role to serve South Africans.
For an airline that has played a major role in providing business travelers great frequency into the secondary domestic and regional markets over two decades, returning back from a three months’ lay-off to full operation was never going to be easy. The grounding created a huge market gap in the industry that quickly opened up an opportunity for our competitors to exploit.
The airline is now charting a new path since returning to the skies in August — and this is evidenced in the way we have managed to stabilise the business as well as maintaining our solid operational performance in the past two months.
To date 8 aircrafts (5X Q400, 2X CRJ 200, 1X CRJ 700) of our total fleet of 18 have been re-certified to return to full business operation. We are well ahead of schedule to have 12 aircraft re-certified prior to the relaunch of our Cape Town base in January.
SA Express primary mandate is to connect secondary destinations to main airport hubs and connect people to businesses and people to their loved ones and we’re determined not to make our passengers wait any longer than necessary.
Reclaiming our key routes and returning to provide service to our valued customers remains paramount priority for us. Our relaunch strategy is anchored on a new and prudent approach. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, we have adopted a new model predicated on circumspection in the way we select our routes so that in the end we are able to relaunch only on those routes that almost guarantee commercial returns for the airline.
So far SA Express has relaunched a total of 7 major local and regional routes focusing on destinations with profitability potential by offering improved frequency at timings that suit our customers. They include among others, Johannesburg to Lubumbashi, Walvisbay, Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Richardsbay and Hoedspruit, with more to come early in November.
Our shareholders have consistently and rightly so emphasised the fact that state firms cannot remain on the path of continued dependency and draining public finances— a message that was reinforced by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in his medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) tabled in parliament on Wednesday.
SA Express leadership is fully behind government’s efforts to exploring new innovative ways that could help the public-sector provide services more efficiently including the “reconfiguration” of these entities.
Wednesday Treasury’s announcement for a new allocation of R1.2 billion equity injection is welcome relief to the business in ensuring stability and a basis for growth. This will go a long way to put the airline back on track to be able to service some of its outstanding debt while gearing itself towards delivering on its mandate and promises.
To this end, SA Express’s new Board of Directors and management have set in motion processes that would assist propel the airline forward towards improved performance and financial sustainability. The airline’s leadership is currently driving the improved turnaround plan of the airline on the strength of five strategic pillars, with clear initiatives and outcomes.
The five key pillars are anchored around good corporate governance, working to grow our revenue and to achieve profitability, engendering operational efficiency, improving our product offerings and services, and retaining and developing competent staff.
Having laboured these past few months to interrogate our systems and identify gaps, we are now slowly putting in place intervention processes to reverse some of the wrought that led to the current state of corrosion and rebuilding the airline to a level that we can all be very proud of.
About SA Express: SA Express was established on 24 April 1994, on the eve of South Africa’s new democratic dispensation. As a regional airline, SA Express offers seamless connectivity between primary and secondary domestic destinations in South Africa and five other SADC countries. Its unblemished safety record over 24 years is among the reasons that the airline continues to be regarded as a leading regional carrier on the African continent.
Statement issued by Madikwe Mabotha, Divisional Manager: Communications and Stakeholder Relations, South African Express Airways SOC Ltd, 28 October 2018
