SAA set to resume flights from late September




© FAR

But airline gives no details on financials or its planned majority stake sale to a private consortium.
Embattled national airline South African Airways confirmed on Wednesday that it will be back in the skies servicing the Johannesburg-Cape Town route and five other African regional destinations as of September 23, ahead of the Heritage Day long weekend.

The airline has effectively been grounded since late March last year, when the country went into a Covid-19  “hard lockdown” and SAA’s financial woes worsened amid the worst crisis for the aviation industry in its history.

With both international and local flights initially banned, all major local airlines and most major international airlines were force to ground flights.

Most of the local airlines have since recommenced flights in a stop-start fashion based on lockdown levels, but SAA has remained grounded in order to finalise its business rescue and the planned sale of a majority stake in the airline to a private consortium that includes Global Airways and Harith General Partners.
“The wait is finally over. In just under a month, the striking and familiar livery of SAA will once again be visible in the skies as the airline resumes operations,” SAA declared in a statement on Wednesday.

SAA noted that tickets will go on sale as of Thursday, August 26, 2021.