South African Airways retires its last A340-200 from active service

South Africa's CemAir set to start scheduled int'l ops

South Africa’s CemAir (5Z, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) launches its first own international schedules with the commencement of weekly commercial flights between Johannesburg O.R. Tambo and Luanda, Angola, on March 23, 2021, confirmed Chief Executive Officer Miles van der Molen.

Flights will depart OR Tambo International Airport at 0800L (0600Z) and arrive at Luanda’s Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport at 1100L (0900Z), using CemAir's sole owned 90-seat CRJ900ER, ZS-CMP (msn 15079).

“The introduction of the flight was made possible following the relaxation of COVID travel restrictions by the Angolan government. The current level of restrictions allows for one flight per week by CemAir on the route. Further flights will be added once restrictions are relaxed,” he said.

Meanwhile, CemAir last week received designation to start flights to Gaborone, Botswana, Van der Molen informed ch-aviation. “We just need a Foreign Operator’s Permit for Botswana, and we will be good to go. We are also designated by Mozambique and are awaiting the FOP before we start flights to Maputo.” The airline has...

SAA business rescue costs sky-rocket

The cost of rescuing bankrupt South African Airways has shot up to ZAR19.3 billion rand (USD1.3 billion), of which ZAR5.3 billion (USD364 million) will have to be sourced from strategic equity partnerships yet to be announced.

This was revealed by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni when he delivered the country’s 2021 National Budget to Parliament on February 24, 2021. The amount is nearly double the ZAR10.3 billion (USD708.2 million) originally budgeted for.

He also confirmed that South African taxpayers would have to cough up another ZAR3.5 billion (USD240.3 million), taking the government’s bailout of SAA up to ZAR14 billion (USD961.5 million), including the ZAR10.5 billion (USD721 million) already allocated in the 2020/21 budget. This higher figure was first disclosed in November 2020 by the airline’s administrators to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), the parliamentary spending watchdog. In a budget briefing, the minister said the allocation of the additional ZAR3.5 billion still had to be “interrogated” before being approved.

Mboweni revealed that the business rescue plan - approved by SAA creditors on July 14, 2020 -...

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