Bloomberg
SAA was planning to spend between $4 billion (R39.4bn) and $7bn for 25 to 30 long-haul aircraft and had mostly been looking at the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, deputy chief executive Nico Bezuidenhout said yesterday
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The airline expected deliveries to start from 2017, he said.
The beleaguered airline was hoping fuel efficient aircraft would help defray expensive energy costs, he said.
“For
every one advantage that you can name on the one manufacturer you can name a counter advantage on the other,” Bezuidenhout said at the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association (Iata) in Cape Town. “It’s kind of like airline food in a sense: everything tastes like chicken eventually.”
Monwabisi Kalawe took over as SAA chief executive on Saturday with the task of returning the carrier to profit.
The state-owned airline posted a R1.36bn loss for the year to March 2012 and has faced management upheaval, as well as calls by the opposition DA for a sale.
A turnaround strategy has been submitted and is being considered by the government.
“The crucial thing is to turn the finances of the airline around and ensure we bring it back to sustainability and viability over the next year or two,” Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba said. A sale of the carrier was not under consideration by the government, he said.
SAA has arranged funding for the first 10 of the next 20 A320 deliveries on a sale-and-lease-back basis, Bezuidenhout said, adding that future orders might be financed with shareholder or public debt market funding.
The mid-sized Airbus A350 sells for about $288 million at list price, compared with $243.5m for the Boeing 787-9.