Leonard Neill
SOUTH AFRICAN Airways has withdrawn from negotiations to acquire a 49% stake in Uganda Airlines, and consequently dispensed with its plan to use Entebbe as a hub into central and West Africa.
Negotiations with Uganda Airlines and that country's government have been in progress for the past three years.
These were bogged down in the earlier stages when Uganda's cabinet committees indicated they were dissatisfied with the deal, but were revived recently when Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni entered into talks with Transnet managing director Saki Macozoma and SAA's chief executive Coleman Andrews.
A meeting between the trio last December resulted in the signing of a memorandum of understanding, and an agreement to proceed with the talks in order to finalise a deal.
But William Meaney, SAA's executive vice-president of alliances, has announced that a letter terminating the proposed agreement has been sent to Uganda's minister of finance, advising him of SAA's decision.
He has stated that after protracted negotiations it has become clear that agreement cannot be reached on certain significant issues.
Among these is the fact that Uganda Airlines had virtually ceased its operations except for a few flights operating under an ad hoc lease and some code shares.
SAA will continue to pursue its goal of networking Africa through other means, says Meaney. Six other airlines are being pursued at present but no details are available at this stage.
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