Worldtraveler36
Mar 30, 02, 12:30 am
http://www.airlinequality.com/news/saa.htm
SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS
News Pages
SAA ABANDON NIGERIA AIRWAYS VENTURE
14 March 2002 Source: Bloomberg
Heavy financial losses and reduced air traffic to the US have forced South African Airlines to ditch its joint venture with Nigeria Airways.
The main part of the joint venture, a Johannesburg - Lagos - New York route launched in February 2001, will close on 24 March. Planes on the route were manned by an SAA flight crew, while on-board service was provided jointly by the two companies. Nigeria Airways was allowed to sell 109 seats out of the 330 on the flight.
SAA tried unsuccessfully to persuade its Nigerian partners to accept a cut in their seat quota in order to offset a decline in passenger numbers. "Discussions with Nigeria Airways to reduce the 109 seats to 30 failed. SAA had no alternative but to end the relationship after losses amounting to about 54m rands (£3.3m, $4.7m)" SAA said in a statement.
The companies will continue operating between Johannesburg and Lagos. South African Airlines, which has postponed a planned flotation, is undergoing restructuring aimed at putting it on a firmer financial footing. Last month, the South African government bought back 20% of the company's shares from the collapsed carrier Swissair. The government is planning to proceed with the privatisation of SAA when market conditions improve.
SAA SELECT AIRBUS IN MAJOR FLEET ORDER
07 March 2002 Source: Bloomberg
Airbus beat Boeing to an aircraft order worth as much as $3.5 billion as South African Airways said it would stop using the US company's planes - including some it bought last year. Africa's biggest airline said it ordered 41 aircraft from Airbus, 15 for long-haul routes and 26 for short-haul operations.
Airbus said it beat Boeing without having to slash prices. Airbus won new orders for 274 planes worth $37.3 billion last year, beating Boeing by two aircraft, though the US company had been ahead this year after winning a 150 plane order, worth $9.1 billion, from low cost carrier Ryanair.
The contract with SAA covers the purchase or lease of nine A340-600 and 6 A340-300 Enhanced long-haul jetliners, plus 11 A319 and 15 A320 narrow-bodies - increasing the airline's capacity by 10 percent.
The planes will be delivered from the fourth quarter of this year through 2011.
Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines will power the A340-600s. It said the engine order is worth $400 million.
"You shouldn't go away with the idea that the carrier won huge discounts, as it hasn't" said David Velupillai, an Airbus spokesman.
South African Airways said it will phase out 14 older Boeing 747s, two 767s, 22 older 737s and 16 737-800s as the Airbus planes are delivered. Eight Boeing 747-400s will also be phased out from 2008. Boeing had won a contract to supply 21 737-800s in March last year, making it favourite to supply long-range aircraft too.
"Airbus offers lower operating costs and a good product offering" Andre Viljoen, president and chief executive officer of SAA, said in the statement.
SAA is entirely owned by the South African state after it bought back a 20 per cent share in the airline from Swissair Group for 382.5 million rand ($34 million), less than a third of the price the bankrupt Swiss carried paid for the stake in June 1999.
SAA APPOINTS FIRST BLACK CAPTAIN
28 February 2002 Source: Africast
South African Airways has announced the appointment of its first black captain, Mpho Mamashela. During the apartheid era, blacks were barred from taking up senior posts within the airline.
"The airline is very proud of Mpho and has the strongest confidence in his abilities as a commanding officer," said Andre Viljoen, SAA President and Chief Executive Officer.
Mamashela, 37, who has almost 10,000 flying hours to his credit, joined SAA in 1994. For his first flight as an SAA captain, Mamashela piloted a Boeing 737-200 to and from Durban.
"I have been most fortunate and have had great opportunities. I hope to exceed people's expectations of me," said Mamashela, who had earlier worked for Lesotho Airways and Anglo-American as a corporate pilot.
SAA WINS TOP AIRLINE ACCOLADES
01 January 2002
South African Airways (SAA) beat 65 formidable competitors and walked off with two prestigious and highly coveted awards in the airline industry.
The awards for Best Airline in Africa and Best Cabin Crew in Africa for 2001 was awarded by Edward Plaisted, CEO of Skytrax, at a function held at Airways Park, headquarters of SAA.
Lebona Moleli, SAA's Executive Manager (Marketing) and Linley Sharp, Executive Manager (Inflight operations) received the awards on behalf of SAA.
"We are very proud and regard it as a huge privilege to receive these awards. It underlines that our constant efforts towards improved customer service and excellent product will be awarded by the airline industry," said André Viljoen, SAA President and CEO.
"We are especially thrilled that we managed to walk off with the award this year. As part of our programme of Perfecting the Basics, that has as its core outstanding seamless good service, we are constantly training our cabin crew in the finer details of service excellence," Viljoen said.
For these prestigious awards, SAA competed against 65 other airlines on matters such as airport services, on-board service and product. Criteria used were that of on-board comfort, the quality, quantity and presentation of meals, in-flight entertainment as well as sincerity, friendliness, grace, style and efficiency of cabin staff.
Skytrax, a British company established in 1990, are leading specialist advisors to the airline industry. Skytrax conducts competitive performance surveys on product and staff delivery for airlines worldwide to enable them to understand performance on a regional and worldwide basis.
Skytrax also ranks the different airlines according to a star ranking system, from 1 to 5 stars, that provides the global quality monitor for airline front line service standards.
According to the star ranking system SAA is a four star airline. Only Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines received five star rankings. SAA was also the proud winner of the Skytrax award as Best Airline in Africa for 1998.
SAA WARN OF CONTINUED LOSS
13 December 2001 - Source: Business Daily
South African Airways warned that it might post another loss this year, reversing its earlier projections that it would move back into the black with a R50m profit in 2002.
The airline announced a strategy to turn its fortunes around after its R735m 2000-01 loss. The strategy is focused on boosting domestic demand and opening extra direct routes to Europe.
"We have informed the board of a worst case scenario which involves an improvement on last year's headline loss: how much we cannot say at this stage," said SAA CEO Andre Viljoen.
SAA still had a cash pile of nearly R4bn in the bank, and the interim results were ahead of budget, but a number of external factors had forced the airline to reduce its profit expectations for 2002.
Viljoen said the effect of the September 11 US terrorist attacks had been significant. Coupled with a 40% decline in the rand against the dollar over the past two months, and a fall-off in domestic travel, the pressure on profits was "intense". Viljoen estimated that local passenger traffic had fallen 8% to 10% since October, as big companies appeared to be tightening their belts and reducing corporate travel.
"We have started a number of initiatives in a bid to stimulate the local market and get domestic travellers back on board," he said. These included a range of incentives to entice travellers to fly locally, and an extensive advertising and promotion campaign. SAA was also investigating whether to introduce direct flights to Italy, Portugal and France.
"We are looking at beginning these flights early next year," he said. These moves will be undertaken in conjunction with SAA's "Getting the Basics Right" strategy, which includes reducing costs, improving customer service and bolstering its competitive position. Viljoen said SAA would only be able to meet profit projections this year if these strategies worked and passengers returned. Otherwise, there could be a loss of several hundred million rand.
The recent withdrawal of Swissair as an equity partner holding 20% of SAA would not have a negative effect on finances. The Swiss group, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection, had been a good partner offering benefits such as codesharing and skills transfer.
He did, however, believe it was important for SAA to have an international equity partner which brought value to the airline. Officials from government and Transnet, SAA's parent company, are currently negotiating with the Swiss to buy back the 20% stake.
SAA DISCUSS POSSIBLE MERGER
12 December 2001 - Source: Business Daily
South African Airways, South African Express Airways and South African Airlink are holding exploratory talks to discuss the consolidation of their services and possible merger of the two feeder airlines.
SAA President and CEO Andre Viljoen said in a statement on 11 December that he has met with Boni Dibate, CEO of South African Express Airways, Roger Foster, CEO of South African Airlink to discuss how we can consolidate services and reduce costs.
South African Express Airways is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transnet, which also owns South African Airways. SAA owns 10% of South African Airlink, with the rest held by private investors. Both airlines provide an extensive feeder network for SAA to almost anywhere in South Africa.
Ernst & Young have been appointed to act as advisors to the three airlines through out this project. The first step will be to investigate the feasibility of bringing the two regional feeder airlines together and to examine the business case of the prospective combined entity.
"We expect to complete this process which also includes consultations with the Department of Public Enterprises, the Competition Commission and other stakeholders, by March 2002," Viljoen said.
SAA TO BE RE-NATIONALISED
22 November 2001 - Source: FT.com
The South African government is to renationalise South African Airways following the financial difficulties of its equity partner Swissair.
Swissair bought 20 per cent of SAA in 1999, but since running into difficulties earlier this year, has sought to sell its stakes in other airlines under a debt enforcement moratorium. Jeff Radebe, South Africa's minister of public enterprises, said the cabinet had decided to terminate its shareholders agreement with Swissair.
Transnet, the state holding company of SAA, would buy back the 20 per cent stake at 85 per cent of its fair value. The depressed airline market in the wake of the September 11 attacks has made a commercial buyer for the Swissair stake unlikely, leaving the government no alternative but to reverse the airline's privatisation.
SAA had joined Swissair's network of alliances, had adopted its computerised booking system, Axres, and relied on it for aircraft maintenance contracts. The renationalisation is a blow to the government's privatisation programme.
The Department of Public Enterprises had hoped to list SAA on the Johannesburg stock exchange in 2002. But Swissair's difficulties coupled with the airline's poor financial performance this year and controversy over hiring expatriate executives to run the airline have marred what was expected to be a turnround in the airline's performance.
Coleman Andrews, SAA's former chief executive, claimed in February that SAA was rated as one of the top airline turnrounds in the past 15 years. At the time, he said SAA was valued at R8.5bn ($890m). But the airline reported a headline loss of R735m for the 2000-01 financial year only a few months after Mr Andrews left.
SAA CUTTING BACK NYC FLIGHTS
31 October 2001 - Source: Africast
South African Airways has reduced its service to New York from daily to four times a week.
Announcing the change, a spokesperson for the airline said that after the 11 September attacks, there had been a drop in demand for travel to New York.
"This is only a temporary move" SAA regional manager, Gertrude Banda, said 31st October.
"From 1 November, we will now fly to New York on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We have a long-term commitment to the North American market and the goal is to resume a daily service when demand picks up."
TALKS OVER SWISSAIR STAKE
05 October 2001 - Source: Africast
The South African government is holding urgent high level talks with Swissair - which filed for bankruptcy protection this week - to consider its options on the 20% stake that the Swiss aviation group holds in South African Airways (SAA).
Public enterprises director-general Sivi Gounden said on Thursday that government was concerned about the situation confronting Swissair. "We are in contact with Swissair on the matter" he said.
Several options were being discussed with Transnet, he said, and a decision would be taken in the best interest of SAA.
Several industry observers have urged the government to get SAA out of its equity partnership with the Swiss group, saying that even if Swissair found funds to continue flying in the future, it was now badly tainted.
South African Airways CEO Andre Viljoen said this week that if Swissair implemented a decision to sell off its stakes in foreign airlines, it would affect SAA.
Swissair provided SAA with a commercially viable code- share partnership and helped it on several fronts as an equity partner.
He said this included management training and employee development; committing 12 of its aircraft to SAA's technical maintenance division for servicing - and helping to manage SAA's reservation system through its subsidiary Atraxis.
FORMER SAA MANAGEMENT UNDER FIRE
Mr Saki Macozoma, the former managing director of Transnet (SAA's holding company) has been accused of serious breaches of corporate governance in his management of South African Airways, by Mr Radebe, the S African minister of public enterprises.
"It has now become clear that since 1998 there has been a systematic erosion of corporate governance at SAA," said Mr Radebe. Saki Macozoma left Transnet in March 2001 - shortly after his departure, Coleman Andrews (SAA Chief Executive) also left after his contract was cut short by 14 months.
SAA CHIEF EXECUTIVE QUITS
Coleman Andrews has quit as Chairman and Chief Executive of South African Airways to facilitate the airline's public listing next year. He was not due to step down until mid-2002.
"It simply is impossible to do a listing in the middle of a leadership transition," he explained. "We would rather make the transition now. The timing is right."
The new chief executive will be Andre Viljoen, currently SAA Executive VP and Financial Director, and Don Ncube will take over as SAA chairman.
The privatisation of SAA is scheduled for 2002 - Swissair purchased 20 per cent of SAA in 1999 for and has an option to acquire a further 10 per cent.
There has been suggestion in recent weeks Swissair would not buy the extra 10 per cent and may want to sell its current stake in SAA.
------------------
Michael
AA PLT,1 MLN Miles+
HH GLD, SCI GLD, MM SIL
LE PRESIDENT ETERNEL DE CAMAIR-CAMEROUN AIRLINES :)
SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS
News Pages
SAA ABANDON NIGERIA AIRWAYS VENTURE
14 March 2002 Source: Bloomberg
Heavy financial losses and reduced air traffic to the US have forced South African Airlines to ditch its joint venture with Nigeria Airways.
The main part of the joint venture, a Johannesburg - Lagos - New York route launched in February 2001, will close on 24 March. Planes on the route were manned by an SAA flight crew, while on-board service was provided jointly by the two companies. Nigeria Airways was allowed to sell 109 seats out of the 330 on the flight.
SAA tried unsuccessfully to persuade its Nigerian partners to accept a cut in their seat quota in order to offset a decline in passenger numbers. "Discussions with Nigeria Airways to reduce the 109 seats to 30 failed. SAA had no alternative but to end the relationship after losses amounting to about 54m rands (£3.3m, $4.7m)" SAA said in a statement.
The companies will continue operating between Johannesburg and Lagos. South African Airlines, which has postponed a planned flotation, is undergoing restructuring aimed at putting it on a firmer financial footing. Last month, the South African government bought back 20% of the company's shares from the collapsed carrier Swissair. The government is planning to proceed with the privatisation of SAA when market conditions improve.
SAA SELECT AIRBUS IN MAJOR FLEET ORDER
07 March 2002 Source: Bloomberg
Airbus beat Boeing to an aircraft order worth as much as $3.5 billion as South African Airways said it would stop using the US company's planes - including some it bought last year. Africa's biggest airline said it ordered 41 aircraft from Airbus, 15 for long-haul routes and 26 for short-haul operations.
Airbus said it beat Boeing without having to slash prices. Airbus won new orders for 274 planes worth $37.3 billion last year, beating Boeing by two aircraft, though the US company had been ahead this year after winning a 150 plane order, worth $9.1 billion, from low cost carrier Ryanair.
The contract with SAA covers the purchase or lease of nine A340-600 and 6 A340-300 Enhanced long-haul jetliners, plus 11 A319 and 15 A320 narrow-bodies - increasing the airline's capacity by 10 percent.
The planes will be delivered from the fourth quarter of this year through 2011.
Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines will power the A340-600s. It said the engine order is worth $400 million.
"You shouldn't go away with the idea that the carrier won huge discounts, as it hasn't" said David Velupillai, an Airbus spokesman.
South African Airways said it will phase out 14 older Boeing 747s, two 767s, 22 older 737s and 16 737-800s as the Airbus planes are delivered. Eight Boeing 747-400s will also be phased out from 2008. Boeing had won a contract to supply 21 737-800s in March last year, making it favourite to supply long-range aircraft too.
"Airbus offers lower operating costs and a good product offering" Andre Viljoen, president and chief executive officer of SAA, said in the statement.
SAA is entirely owned by the South African state after it bought back a 20 per cent share in the airline from Swissair Group for 382.5 million rand ($34 million), less than a third of the price the bankrupt Swiss carried paid for the stake in June 1999.
SAA APPOINTS FIRST BLACK CAPTAIN
28 February 2002 Source: Africast
South African Airways has announced the appointment of its first black captain, Mpho Mamashela. During the apartheid era, blacks were barred from taking up senior posts within the airline.
"The airline is very proud of Mpho and has the strongest confidence in his abilities as a commanding officer," said Andre Viljoen, SAA President and Chief Executive Officer.
Mamashela, 37, who has almost 10,000 flying hours to his credit, joined SAA in 1994. For his first flight as an SAA captain, Mamashela piloted a Boeing 737-200 to and from Durban.
"I have been most fortunate and have had great opportunities. I hope to exceed people's expectations of me," said Mamashela, who had earlier worked for Lesotho Airways and Anglo-American as a corporate pilot.
SAA WINS TOP AIRLINE ACCOLADES
01 January 2002
South African Airways (SAA) beat 65 formidable competitors and walked off with two prestigious and highly coveted awards in the airline industry.
The awards for Best Airline in Africa and Best Cabin Crew in Africa for 2001 was awarded by Edward Plaisted, CEO of Skytrax, at a function held at Airways Park, headquarters of SAA.
Lebona Moleli, SAA's Executive Manager (Marketing) and Linley Sharp, Executive Manager (Inflight operations) received the awards on behalf of SAA.
"We are very proud and regard it as a huge privilege to receive these awards. It underlines that our constant efforts towards improved customer service and excellent product will be awarded by the airline industry," said André Viljoen, SAA President and CEO.
"We are especially thrilled that we managed to walk off with the award this year. As part of our programme of Perfecting the Basics, that has as its core outstanding seamless good service, we are constantly training our cabin crew in the finer details of service excellence," Viljoen said.
For these prestigious awards, SAA competed against 65 other airlines on matters such as airport services, on-board service and product. Criteria used were that of on-board comfort, the quality, quantity and presentation of meals, in-flight entertainment as well as sincerity, friendliness, grace, style and efficiency of cabin staff.
Skytrax, a British company established in 1990, are leading specialist advisors to the airline industry. Skytrax conducts competitive performance surveys on product and staff delivery for airlines worldwide to enable them to understand performance on a regional and worldwide basis.
Skytrax also ranks the different airlines according to a star ranking system, from 1 to 5 stars, that provides the global quality monitor for airline front line service standards.
According to the star ranking system SAA is a four star airline. Only Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines received five star rankings. SAA was also the proud winner of the Skytrax award as Best Airline in Africa for 1998.
SAA WARN OF CONTINUED LOSS
13 December 2001 - Source: Business Daily
South African Airways warned that it might post another loss this year, reversing its earlier projections that it would move back into the black with a R50m profit in 2002.
The airline announced a strategy to turn its fortunes around after its R735m 2000-01 loss. The strategy is focused on boosting domestic demand and opening extra direct routes to Europe.
"We have informed the board of a worst case scenario which involves an improvement on last year's headline loss: how much we cannot say at this stage," said SAA CEO Andre Viljoen.
SAA still had a cash pile of nearly R4bn in the bank, and the interim results were ahead of budget, but a number of external factors had forced the airline to reduce its profit expectations for 2002.
Viljoen said the effect of the September 11 US terrorist attacks had been significant. Coupled with a 40% decline in the rand against the dollar over the past two months, and a fall-off in domestic travel, the pressure on profits was "intense". Viljoen estimated that local passenger traffic had fallen 8% to 10% since October, as big companies appeared to be tightening their belts and reducing corporate travel.
"We have started a number of initiatives in a bid to stimulate the local market and get domestic travellers back on board," he said. These included a range of incentives to entice travellers to fly locally, and an extensive advertising and promotion campaign. SAA was also investigating whether to introduce direct flights to Italy, Portugal and France.
"We are looking at beginning these flights early next year," he said. These moves will be undertaken in conjunction with SAA's "Getting the Basics Right" strategy, which includes reducing costs, improving customer service and bolstering its competitive position. Viljoen said SAA would only be able to meet profit projections this year if these strategies worked and passengers returned. Otherwise, there could be a loss of several hundred million rand.
The recent withdrawal of Swissair as an equity partner holding 20% of SAA would not have a negative effect on finances. The Swiss group, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection, had been a good partner offering benefits such as codesharing and skills transfer.
He did, however, believe it was important for SAA to have an international equity partner which brought value to the airline. Officials from government and Transnet, SAA's parent company, are currently negotiating with the Swiss to buy back the 20% stake.
SAA DISCUSS POSSIBLE MERGER
12 December 2001 - Source: Business Daily
South African Airways, South African Express Airways and South African Airlink are holding exploratory talks to discuss the consolidation of their services and possible merger of the two feeder airlines.
SAA President and CEO Andre Viljoen said in a statement on 11 December that he has met with Boni Dibate, CEO of South African Express Airways, Roger Foster, CEO of South African Airlink to discuss how we can consolidate services and reduce costs.
South African Express Airways is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transnet, which also owns South African Airways. SAA owns 10% of South African Airlink, with the rest held by private investors. Both airlines provide an extensive feeder network for SAA to almost anywhere in South Africa.
Ernst & Young have been appointed to act as advisors to the three airlines through out this project. The first step will be to investigate the feasibility of bringing the two regional feeder airlines together and to examine the business case of the prospective combined entity.
"We expect to complete this process which also includes consultations with the Department of Public Enterprises, the Competition Commission and other stakeholders, by March 2002," Viljoen said.
SAA TO BE RE-NATIONALISED
22 November 2001 - Source: FT.com
The South African government is to renationalise South African Airways following the financial difficulties of its equity partner Swissair.
Swissair bought 20 per cent of SAA in 1999, but since running into difficulties earlier this year, has sought to sell its stakes in other airlines under a debt enforcement moratorium. Jeff Radebe, South Africa's minister of public enterprises, said the cabinet had decided to terminate its shareholders agreement with Swissair.
Transnet, the state holding company of SAA, would buy back the 20 per cent stake at 85 per cent of its fair value. The depressed airline market in the wake of the September 11 attacks has made a commercial buyer for the Swissair stake unlikely, leaving the government no alternative but to reverse the airline's privatisation.
SAA had joined Swissair's network of alliances, had adopted its computerised booking system, Axres, and relied on it for aircraft maintenance contracts. The renationalisation is a blow to the government's privatisation programme.
The Department of Public Enterprises had hoped to list SAA on the Johannesburg stock exchange in 2002. But Swissair's difficulties coupled with the airline's poor financial performance this year and controversy over hiring expatriate executives to run the airline have marred what was expected to be a turnround in the airline's performance.
Coleman Andrews, SAA's former chief executive, claimed in February that SAA was rated as one of the top airline turnrounds in the past 15 years. At the time, he said SAA was valued at R8.5bn ($890m). But the airline reported a headline loss of R735m for the 2000-01 financial year only a few months after Mr Andrews left.
SAA CUTTING BACK NYC FLIGHTS
31 October 2001 - Source: Africast
South African Airways has reduced its service to New York from daily to four times a week.
Announcing the change, a spokesperson for the airline said that after the 11 September attacks, there had been a drop in demand for travel to New York.
"This is only a temporary move" SAA regional manager, Gertrude Banda, said 31st October.
"From 1 November, we will now fly to New York on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We have a long-term commitment to the North American market and the goal is to resume a daily service when demand picks up."
TALKS OVER SWISSAIR STAKE
05 October 2001 - Source: Africast
The South African government is holding urgent high level talks with Swissair - which filed for bankruptcy protection this week - to consider its options on the 20% stake that the Swiss aviation group holds in South African Airways (SAA).
Public enterprises director-general Sivi Gounden said on Thursday that government was concerned about the situation confronting Swissair. "We are in contact with Swissair on the matter" he said.
Several options were being discussed with Transnet, he said, and a decision would be taken in the best interest of SAA.
Several industry observers have urged the government to get SAA out of its equity partnership with the Swiss group, saying that even if Swissair found funds to continue flying in the future, it was now badly tainted.
South African Airways CEO Andre Viljoen said this week that if Swissair implemented a decision to sell off its stakes in foreign airlines, it would affect SAA.
Swissair provided SAA with a commercially viable code- share partnership and helped it on several fronts as an equity partner.
He said this included management training and employee development; committing 12 of its aircraft to SAA's technical maintenance division for servicing - and helping to manage SAA's reservation system through its subsidiary Atraxis.
FORMER SAA MANAGEMENT UNDER FIRE
Mr Saki Macozoma, the former managing director of Transnet (SAA's holding company) has been accused of serious breaches of corporate governance in his management of South African Airways, by Mr Radebe, the S African minister of public enterprises.
"It has now become clear that since 1998 there has been a systematic erosion of corporate governance at SAA," said Mr Radebe. Saki Macozoma left Transnet in March 2001 - shortly after his departure, Coleman Andrews (SAA Chief Executive) also left after his contract was cut short by 14 months.
SAA CHIEF EXECUTIVE QUITS
Coleman Andrews has quit as Chairman and Chief Executive of South African Airways to facilitate the airline's public listing next year. He was not due to step down until mid-2002.
"It simply is impossible to do a listing in the middle of a leadership transition," he explained. "We would rather make the transition now. The timing is right."
The new chief executive will be Andre Viljoen, currently SAA Executive VP and Financial Director, and Don Ncube will take over as SAA chairman.
The privatisation of SAA is scheduled for 2002 - Swissair purchased 20 per cent of SAA in 1999 for and has an option to acquire a further 10 per cent.
There has been suggestion in recent weeks Swissair would not buy the extra 10 per cent and may want to sell its current stake in SAA.
------------------
Michael
AA PLT,1 MLN Miles+
HH GLD, SCI GLD, MM SIL
LE PRESIDENT ETERNEL DE CAMAIR-CAMEROUN AIRLINES :)