ARGENTINA’s ambassador to South Africa, Carlos Sersale di Cerisano, has criticised South African Airways’ (SAA’s) move to end its service to Buenos Aires as a "political decision" not based on commercial criteria.
SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said the airline was cutting long-haul routes from its network as part of a turnaround strategy to restore profitability. Cutting the route between Argentina and South Africa had to be seen in that context.
"Projections are that the termination will take effect in the new calendar year," Mr Tlali said in an e -mail. "SAA identified two international destinations, namely Beijing and Buenos Aires, to cease operating in.
"Decisions of this nature are dependent on the concurrence of the shareholder. We have canvassed the shareholder views in both cases and were successful in the case of Buenos Aires only.
"This means we will continue to fly to Beijing.
South Africa is part of Brics, a political and trade bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China and South Africa, with the most modest position in the bloc, and is eager to cement its place in the grouping.
"Beijing and São Paulo are destinations to two of the Brics member states ," Mr Tlali said. "Even more, China is the number one trade partner for South Africa.
"We will provide a comprehensive account as to why we pull out of certain routes once our consultations have been finalised ."
Department of Public Enterprises spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said the decision to cut the Buenos Aires route had been a commercial decision as the route was losing about R50m a year. The department supported the move.
The Beijing route, which loses about R300m, was being kept for "strategic and development reasons", Mr Tshwete said.
SAA was retaining the Brazil route because it had larger volumes and was a bigger hub for traffic from the South American continent. "Sao Paulo is more a strategic route because it’s a bigger hub (than Buenos Aires)," Mr Tshwete said.
Mr Sersale di Cerisano said when comparing the commercial performance of the Buenos Aires-to-Johannesburg route and the Sao Paulo-to-Johannesburg one, it was clear that both were losing money. But the Argentinian route lost less.
The Buenos Aires route could make money if operated with more fuel-efficient aircraft.
A meeting scheduled between the ambassador and SAA in October was cancelled an hour before and there had been no success in rescheduling, Mr Sersale di Cerisano said. Letters sent to the Department of Public Enterprises, the shareholder ministry of SAA, had not been responded to.
He had wanted to "look at macro figures and to have some discussion about why this happened", Mr di Sersale Cerisano said. "SAA cancelled one hour before the meeting, saying everything was in the hands of the DPE (Department of Public Enterprises).
"The minister of tourism also passed this information to DPE … and (they) never answered. SAA may not care (about) bilateral relations … but (they are) making a decision ignoring the right data. It is a political decision.
"We are going to do magical thinking and say we will route everything through Brazil. This won’t happen ."
Mr Tshwete said the initial plan was to phase the Buenos Aires route out by the end of March, but this was "not conclusive". Discussions with stakeholders including the departments of international relations and co-operation and tourism, and representatives of Argentina, were still in progress.
The Department of Public Enterprises was in the process of formulating a response to the Argentinian representatives’ take on the matter. Further, it was in consultations with the Department of International Relations and Co-operation.
The Department of International Relations and Co-operation could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Mr Sersale di Cerisano said he had been in contact with the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, which he described as "concerned". Both parties wanted an explanation since the decision to terminate the route went against an August agreement to increase the frequency of flights between the two countries, from three times a week to five.
"Our interaction with them is perfect and I understand they have not been consulted," Mr Sersale di Cerisano said. "They are asking for answers."
