Safair declares interest in Mango acquisition

Safair (FA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) Chief Executive Elmar Conradie has been quoted in the South African press as saying that his company would be interested in acquiring South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) low-cost carrier Mango Airlines (MNO, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) from the South African government if the price was right. Conradie's interest is linked to recent statements by South Africa's finance minister Pravin Gordhan that the government should no longer continue to financially support all of its four government owned carriers, SAA, Mango, South African Express (EXY, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) and Airlink (South Africa) (4Z, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo).

Safair's scheduled low-cost carrier unit FlySafair (FA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) currently operates three B737-400s and three B737-800s on domestic services from Johannesburg and Cape Town International to Durban King Shaka, East London, George and Port Elizabeth as well as on South Africa's key route linking Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Mango currently operates nine B737-800s and one B737-300 wet-leased from Star Air (South Africa) (BRH, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) on a predominantly domestic network with one international service from Johannesburg to Zanzibar.