thijsseh

SAA will not be turned around as long as the SA Government owns it.
Simple

johan rebel

"Finance Minister, Malusi Gigaba, is expected to brief the nation on how SAA will be funded when he tables his maiden Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in Parliament on Wednesday.

The national carrier, which was moved from the portfolio of Public Enterprises to National Treasury in 2014, has been struggling to pay its lenders and service providers. At the end of September, National Treasury announced that government had approved a R3bn transfer to SAA to allow it to meet its debt obligations to Citibank. The funds, which were also to be used to assist the airline with its immediate working capital requirements, were from the National Revenue Fund.

Opposition parties have since questioned whether this bailout, which was the second transfer of funds since July, was illegal."

Source

Johan

Cheetah_SA

On the radio this morning the Deputy Minister of State Capture was painting a rosy picture of the prospects for SAA. There are massive cost savings that can be made, he told us. The example he came up with was closing the office in Miami - “We don’t even fly there!” he exclaimed. He did not elaborate on how many billions that would save. So, I’m really sorry SAA Miami, it looks like you are going to be the sacrificial lamb on the alter of the false god of SAA’s “turnaround”.

When asked where government was while all the mismanagement took place, he insisted that it wasn’t government’s job. The feisty interviewer wouldn’t let him off the hook, however, and asked where the oversight was. I switched off at that point as it was too depressing. Politicians are pretty disreputable everywhere; but ours are truly vile. It’s impossible to shame them as they have literally zero capacity to feel shame.

skywardhunter

567/702?

Politicians need to have a thick skin. Even if they are honest the amount of flak they get makes it hard to survive without emotional damage.

I still think it makes sense to close the Miami office. It's a waste of money. Looking from SAA's perspective it's obvious. From a consumer perspective it may be the best call center and sad to lose it, but for 358 frequent flyers who even know it exists and value it to justify the expense is difficult. they should definitely follow that by investing in training and improving their SA call centers

evanb

And where are they going to move the office to? The fact that they have the office in Miami is a legacy sure, but moving it to DC or NYC isn't going to lower costs.

skywardhunter

Why would they move it? Or keep one in the US at all? That's the point. Do it locally

jsnydcsa

We can go back and forth on the decision to "close" Miami should be based on business decisionmaking (e.g. costs, do they maintain other call centres in other places to cater to the local trade (e.g. USA/Can) and callers, would the savings really amount to enough to improve SA-based centres, etc.) or whether to close on the musings of a Deputy Minister (betcha he's been to Miami and not to check on SAA's call centre). But, really, its just a drop in the bucket, IMHO.

Honestly, I hope they don't close it. The staff there are excellent and I've NEVER had a problem working with them. I've even called from SA to Miami for assistance.

Cheetah_SA

SAFM.

I don't doubt that closing the Miami office would make financial sense. But if that is the best option he can come up with to effect cost savings, there really is no hope.

skywardhunter

That I 100% agree with.

Have a US number, just VoIP it to a SA call center. More importantly slim and trim the staff, restructure the route network, perhaps look at deeper codeshare agreements with EK and the like as a feeder into the regional and domestic network (already partially in place, I'm not familiar with the extent thereof), get rid of A340s entirely, especially on CPT-JNB routes, buy 787s instead.

evanb

The office in the Fort Lauderdale serves a large volume of business to US based travel agents and tour operators. This office is absolutely necessary given that passengers between the North America and Southern Africa are disproportionately North American originating traffic. It's for this same reason that they have an office in the UK and Germany. Closing the US office would be catastrophic to distribution in the US.

This and your further comment is pointless. SAA's problems are not operational. Changing fleets or route networks are pointless and not going to change the fundamental problems which are governance problems, not operational or strategic problems.

skywardhunter

It's both. My point is why does a US travel agent need to speak to an American? Whether the office is in Miami, FLL or JNB should be irrelevant to the NYC based customer.

Ditto

It shouldn't matter, but many americans would prefer talking to americans on the other side of the phone..

thijsseh

Looking at the efficiency differences between the Miami and SA call centres (which have been widely described here), it might make more sense from a customer service / satisfaction point of view to VOIP calls from SA to Miami

/* takes tongue out of cheek*/

evanb

It's a lot more complicated than just an American travel agent wanting to speak to an American. The broader distribution channels vary from country-to-country and having local staff with experience in these systems is vital. Most airlines that fly internationally have representative sales offices in foreign countries, sometimes this is an outsourced function, other times partially outsourced, and in many cases with their own staff. What SAA has in the US isn't unusual for an airline of its size. It would be different if much of it's traffic to/from North America was not originating in North America, but given that most originate in North America their sales and distribution operation is focussed there.

Cheetah_SA

Totally irrelevant to this conversation, but I suddenly remembered the glory days when SAA had a conspicuous office right on Oxford Circus! That was before this newfangled interweb thingy when people actually went to buy tickets etc. at an airline’s offices. And having your office located in a highly prestigious location was a form of willy waving that airlines indulged in to impress the punters.

Well, maybe it’s not entirely irrelevant - having a presence still matters, I’m sure.

Sorry. Normal service can now resume...