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Global/Syranix refuse to be sidelined in SAA privatisation

The semi-privatisation of South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) remains mired in politics, with a minority strategic equity partner (SEP) refusing to be sidelined as proposed by South Africa's competition watchdog.

Global Aviation Operations (GE, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) and management consultancy Syranix deny they agreed to divest from the Takatso consortium, the government's preferred SEP, as a condition for regulatory approval of the deal. "We have not agreed to divest from Takatso/SAA and remain open to finding a way to share the deep local skills and experience we have in order to build a sustainable regional and international airline and an iconic South African brand," Global Aviation/Syranix representative and former Takatso CEO Gidon Novick told ch-aviation.

The Competition Commission, an advisory body, has recommended that the country's decision-making Competition Tribunal approve the proposed sale of 51% of SAA to Takatso. But first, it wants Takatso's minority partners – Global Aviation/Syranix – to divest from the consortium fully. This follows competition concerns over Global's ownership of Lift Airlines (LIFT), which competes domestically...

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South African Airways to exit A340, A319 fleet

South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) is replacing its only remaining A340-300 with a similar capacity aircraft and will exit its A319-100 fleet in 2023, says Chief Commercial Officer Tebogo Tsimane.

"As we increase fleet size to match the needs of the growing network schedule, we are encouraged that our strategy to cautiously re-enter markets abandoned due to the Covid pandemic has served us very well during the past 12 months, and we will continue to follow that cautious risk-adjusted trajectory," he said in a statement. The A340-300 is currently used as a spare to support the schedule during required fleet maintenance or when capacity demand requires the deployment of a larger aircraft.

SAA is also leasing three more A320-200s, bringing the total number of A320s in its fleet to five to support expected high-capacity demand as South Africa's peak summer holiday season approaches in December. As reported, the first of these - ZS-SZD (msn 6007) - was delivered on September 25, 2022, and is currently in maintenance in Johannesburg....