Battle for Mango Airlines’ survival heads to court

The battle for the survival of Mango Airlines will take place at the South Gauteng High Court as unions fight for the low-cost airline company to be placed under business rescue. Picture: Karen Sandison/African News Agency (ANA)

The battle for the survival of Mango Airlines will take place at the South Gauteng High Court as unions fight for the low-cost airline company to be placed under business rescue. Picture: Karen Sandison/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Aug 3, 2021

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Johannesburg - The battle for the survival of Mango Airlines will take place at the South Gauteng High Court today as unions fight for the low-cost airline company to be placed under business rescue.

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the SA Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) and the Mango Pilots Association had applied to the courts to have the state company placed under business rescue. The unions were expecting Mango to oppose the application.

The unions say they would like Mango to join the business rescue application, which could see both labour and the employer overseeing the process.

The chairperson of the Mango Pilots Association, Jordan Butler, accused Mango management of withholding the salaries of employees. He said this was part of a plan by management to force the unions to drop their application to the South Gauteng High Court to have Mango placed under business rescue.

There were also allegations that the Department of Public Enterprises and other stakeholders in SAA were trying to have Mango replaced by Lift, an airline associated to Global Airways which has a stake in the Takatso Consortium.

Butler said that if Mango is replaced by Lift around 700 jobs would be lost. He said competing airlines had already raised their prices since Mango had stopped flying and there was a chance of some creating a monopoly in the market.

“The department was in favour of winding up Mango. That was on 30th April, they had the intention of doing that. Why would you not use your own carrier that has been around for many years and relaunch SAA with us?” Butler said.

He said Mango pilots were suffering, with some being forced to move back home and others having had their possessions such as houses and cars repossessed. He said there was also psychological trauma for those with children as some have had to downgrade the schools that their children attended.

“Many guys have lost cars. The most concerning for me is medical aid. We are living in a pandemic and some of our members are struggling to pay that. Many of our families are depending on our salaries. It’s hectic,” Butler said.

He was also concerned that the longer it took labour and the government to come up with solutions to the crisis at Mango, the greater the likelihood that some pilots would need to be retrained in order to fly again.

“If we are on the ground too long, we will have the same story as SAA. Some of our pilots will expire,” Butler said.

He said the job market for pilots in South Africa was bad. There were prospects overseas, but Covid-19 had affected the aviation industry badly. The unions had not heard anything from the employer since Mango was grounded last week, he added.

Mango spokesperson Benediction Zubane said the airline would be able to announce the future of Mango today once the business rescue case had been heard in court. “We would communicate what is medium term to long term regarding Mango.”

Public Enterprises spokesperson Richard Mantu was not available for comment.

The Star

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