SAA should be shut down as soon as possible, says Economist

[Bradley Prior]

SAA should be shut down as soon as possible, says Economist

Magnus Heystek, economist and Director at Brenthurst Wealth Management, said the best way to deal with the SAA issue is to shut it down as soon as possible.

“Experience all over the world has shown that the best way to close a non-profitmaking airline is do it quickly and suddenly. This is possibly the best option available to government should it find the political will to do so,” said Heystek.

 

[The Free Radical]

Agreed.

It would be illegal for any other business to trade in such circumstances.

 

[Techne]

And don't let any of the private banks near it.

 

[gottagoon]

Kill SAA. Get rid of all employees. And than start again without ANC interference. Everyone has to re apply for their job......

 

[borro]

 

[zophas]

Another SAA thread? I can't keep track of them all.

 

[Fuzzbox]

Eish.
The trough is empty.

 

[Herr der Verboten]

Another SAA thread? I can't keep track of them all.

Should be shut down as soon as possible

 

[krycor]

But can u imagine the cost of flights without SAA? I’m not saying it’s a good thing, I’m saying the period immediately after will have insane flight costs.. reckon maybe 1-2yrs while things normalize.

 

[Unreal]

If they can just hold on till next week Friday when I'm back in the country.

 

[Utterly Confused]

View attachment 753364

Yip! the trough is empty, no more gravy.

 

[TysonRoux]

Yip! the trough is empty, no more gravy.

No, just running low, and that will cause the swine to turn on one another to secure the last remaining feed.

 

[MirageF1]

And we needed a highly paid economist to tell us that...riigghhhttt!

 

[MachoPants]

Agreed.

It would be illegal for any other business to trade in such circumstances.

Since when did the trough eaters give a ****

 

[Temujin]

Eish.
The trough is empty.

Its never empty, there is always another bail out

 

[zophas]

Yeah, give them another bail out and call it a successful business rescue. Everyone happy, right? Except the taxpayer gets shafted again.

 

[Willie Trombone]

But can u imagine the cost of flights without SAA? I’m not saying it’s a good thing, I’m saying the period immediately after will have insane flight costs.. reckon maybe 1-2yrs while things normalize.

On the contrary, plenty of alternatives as soon as government allow fair competition.

 

[Kelerei]

Somewhat off-topic, but those 747s that MyBroadband likes attaching to every SAA article were retired in 2010.

But can u imagine the cost of flights without SAA? I’m not saying it’s a good thing, I’m saying the period immediately after will have insane flight costs.. reckon maybe 1-2yrs while things normalize.

Comair has, in the past, stated that there are too many airlines in South Africa -- but saying that, they really only face competition from SAA (including Mango), and Flysafair to a lesser extent. No guessing what their prices will do if SAA disappears from the scene.

Effectively, Comair would gain a monopoly on business travellers, travellers to neighbouring countries, and people like me flying in and out of South Africa internationally and wanting to book domestic travel on the same ticket. Airlink would gain a monopoly on routes to the smaller airports (assuming SAX dies as well) -- I've lost count of how often Cemair gets grounded by the CAA these days. The domestic leisure market between Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban will have some competition from Flysafair, but Flysafair may not be able to scale to the extent that Comair can (and keeping in mind Comair has some 737 MAX 8's just waiting to be cleared to fly again). The only market that would be largely unaffected is the long-haul international market, apart from the routes that only SAA flies (e.g. the residents of Johannesburg East Perth would have to travel through Singapore or Sydney -- Qantas isn't going to pick that route up due to disputes that they have with Perth Airport, but that's a story for another thread).

Like it or not, from a pricing point of view, South Africa needs SAA to keep the market honest. That said, South Africa needs a well-run SAA, not the diabolical shambles that it is today. Whether or not SAA can be restored remains to be seen.

 

[EasyComs]

Every socialist government has proven many times that they have no clue how to run business.
Just scrap SAA along with every other failing SOE and let the private sector fill the gap .
BBBEE employees must have the equal rights to fail and be retrenched if they fail.
Make it illegal for any government employee to have anything to do with business.

 

[konfab]

But can u imagine the cost of flights without SAA? I’m not saying it’s a good thing, I’m saying the period immediately after will have insane flight costs.. reckon maybe 1-2yrs while things normalize.

1) That isn't the problem of the SA taxpayer.
2) By how much cheaper is SAA vs Comair for example?

Funnily enough when the government gets out of industries, things get much cheaper.