After a week of unrest and industrial action at national carrier South African Airways (SAA), air freight shippers report minimal impact on their cargo. According to Alwyn Rautenbach, chairman of the Air Cargo Operators' Committee (Acoc), this was because SAA did not operate any exclusive routes and overcapacity existed at the moment. “International flights and regional flights are operating again. SAA only handles their own cargo – and staff at SAA Cargo are not on strike. There is enough capacity in the domestic market as an alternative to the SAA domestic passenger flights,” Rautenbach told FTW last week. SAA employees downed tools on November 15 after demands for an 8% salary hike and threeyear permanent employment guarantee were not met. In a statement regarding the protest action last Tuesday, the airline noted that it had come under huge financial pressure, suffering irreversible damage to its reputation in the process. “The cost of the reputational damage to the company is immeasurable,” the airline said. Furthermore, the minister of public enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, said the government would not be able to bail out the airline again, with money allocated by the government set to repay SAA’s outstanding debt. “No further financial resources can be advanced to the carrier. The funds that government has committed to provide over the next three years have been earmarked for the repayment of SAA’s debt,” he said. The state-owned carrier has accrued a debt of over R9bn, while the airline quoted a loss of R50m per day during the strike. According to air freight companies at OR Tambo International Airport, the strike has not affected them as they hardly make use of the airline, citing SAA’s limited routes, its service and costs as the deciding factors. “The timing was such that the early stonefruit air freight shipments had already been exported. More importantly we do not use SAA much for air freight – so no effect. In terms of domestic cargo, we do very little and use other service providers,” the air freight operator said.
INSERT: There is enough capacity in the domestic market as an alternative to the SAA domestic passenger flights. – Alwyn Rautenbach