South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) is close to finalizing an agreement with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) in which it will convert ten outstanding A320-200s into five A330-200s, which it will then lease. The A320 order dates back to 2009 when the South African carrier ordered twenty of the type of which only ten have been delivered to date.
The agreement is part of the airline's ongoing 90 Day Action Plan aimed at cutting ZAR1.25 billion (USD107.3 million) in expenditure from its current budget ahead of the full on implementation of its Long-Term Turnaround Strategy.
Commenting on recent developments now that the carrier has reached Day 60 of the 90 day plan, Acting Chief Executive Officer Nico Bezuidenhout said that his airline had also extended lease agreements for eight of its A340s by "no more than six years".
Having received government approval for three of the aircraft, a move that will save the airline ZAR112 million (USD9.6 million) in annual fees, he said he was "fully confident" it would get the go-ahead for the remaining five, which are expected to generate an additional ZAR150 million (USD12.9 million) in annual savings.
SAA operates eight A340-300s and nine A340-600s, all of which average 11.6 years of age, on flights throughout Southern and Western Africa, Europe, Asia, Brazil, the United States, and Australia.
As previously reported, SAA has said it would terminate its loss-making Johannesburg O.R. Tambo-Beijing Capital route from late March with Air China (CA, Beijing Capital) to assume the service from June. Direct flights to Mumbai International will also be ended with all future Indian services to be rerouted through Abu Dhabi International as part of a codeshare partnership with Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International).
