JOHANNESBURG - Business rescue practitioners (BRPs) at South African Airways (SAA) want the government to fund an initial working capital of no less than R2.8 billion to rehabilitate the national carrier.
In their business rescue plan published yesterday, the joint BRPs Siviwe Dongwana and Leslie Matuson said that the amount would cover R2 bn in restarting costs and that the working capital would be monitored based on operational requirements. They also said R800 million would cover the costs of post-commencement of creditors.
The R2.8 bn cash injection is over and above the R16.4 billion which the government had ringfenced in February for repaying creditors, R2bn to cover the cost of retrenchments and R600 million to pay general concurrent creditors.
The BRPs said the outcomes of the proposed restructuring was the commencement of a full domestic network starting January 2021 operated by the restructured national airline.
“The operations of the airline will commence with domestic travel under level 3, and 2, and with international travel anticipated to start under level 1. The airline will slowly start ramping up operations and increase its fleet of aircraft in line with the developments of the aviation sector,” said the BRPs.
The BRPs said that the restart of the domestic travel would be on a step by step basis.
The BRPs projected that 1 000 employees would be retained, and the remaining employees would be retrenched.
They said from June 2020 to August 2020, the carrier would require 1 000 employees.
“In terms of the envisaged ramp up, it is anticipated that the final staff number will increase in accordance with the market conditions and passenger demand to 2 892. The employees who accept the voluntary severance packages or are retrenched as the case might be are not precluded from applying for these positions as they become available,” said the BRPs.
BUSINESS REPORT