SAA

Jupiter, i take it from your posting you a pilot, are you jobless now that 1time as gone bust?

Jupiter Jones thank you for correcting the inaccuracies and informing us of the facts regarding our national carrier. (tu)

Just as a matter of interest, when do you envisage the Americans going back to the moon?

Flying is not my bread and butter (un)fortunately I have a desk job and blow the lot on horses and being in the sky.

A number of aircrew from 1time are already re-employed elsewhere. Not sure of exact numbers so won't speculate.

mikesack Wrote:

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> Jupiter Jones thank you for correcting the
> inaccuracies and informing us of the facts
> regarding our national carrier. (tu)
>
> Just as a matter of interest, when do you envisage
> the Americans going back to the moon?


Next time you win a P6 or get lucky?

I started my working career back in 1969 as a PR Officer with SAA, at the old Rotunda building in Jo'burg, and in those days it was run as a very tight ship. It had to be; SAA was a pariah all over the world, and was anathema to every African country, hence had to fly around the bulge of Africa, consuming a hell of a lot more fuel than all the other airlines operating between SA and Europe.

I think there was the odd bailout by the SA government in those days but to nothing like the extent that the airline is subsidised today. it was a lean and mean operation and the only person with a company car was the CEO, who drove the most modest Mercedes on the market. The rest of us drove pool cars on business journeys, for which one had to put in a requsition.

But I must say that I was damned proud to work for the company and my 12 years there gave me immense pleasure. It was just a pity that we were payed so poorly and that my political views didn't quite toe the line, otherwise I might have stayed, instead of taking up an offer to go into horse racing and make my passion a career.

We had some very brilliant men at the top of SAA; Alex Conradie, for whom I used to write speeches and historical lectures, was a Rhodes scholar, as I recall, and one of the most erudite men I have ever known. Frans Swarts was a mean son of a gun, but knew the airline business in and out.

One of my jobs, along the way, was to answer complaints from customers (we had a small team of three people doing this) and every single complaint had to be carefully followed up and investigated, to avoid repeat mistakes. It was exhausting, but very necessary, we felt. Today you are fobbed off with a standard reply, in most instances; I know, because I was briefly enlisted to tighten things up in the complaints department during the era of Coleman Andrews, and was horrified by the couldn't-care-less responses with which the public was fobbed off.

Quite honestly, I find the figures detailing the present ratio of employees to aircraft to be highly suspect, but one must remember that SAA does a lot of contractual maintenance work for other airlines at OR Tambo and that their mechanical staff is probably a lot bigger than for most other airlines.

There's no doubt we need a national airline to help us promote the South African brand, from a tourism perspective, internationally, and that the airline needs to be kept afloat, but does it need to enjoy such enormous government largesse? With some of that spirit of camaraderie that it used to have, 30 years ago, I think it could be doing a great deal better and leadership and inspiration seem to be lacking. I heard that the most recent CEO was making good headway in that regard but it can't be easy to deal with constant Ministerial interference, as has been reported.

The thing is that the state-owned ACSA is deriving such huge revenue from the iniquitous airport taxes (the second highest in the world, after Japan) that our profligate government can afford to offset those earnings against SAA's losses.

Thanks JJ for the corrections(tu) and NM for the "the CEO, who drove the most modest Mercedes on the market". I think that is the answer in a nutshell. Inefficiency, I think could be emblazoned on our coat of arms.

I fly SAA often, and when I can't, I still try and fly with Star Alliance ( as tonight on Lufthansa out of Frankfurt ). I enjoy racking up Voyager Miles and when I have cashed some of those in I have never had a problem ( I know a lot of people have other views on the Voyager programme ). On all routes I have travelled on with SAA the planes have always been close to full or full. This leads me to believe that the woes the company finds itself in are more managerial in nature. The money must be coming in when it comes to filling seats. The domestic routes alone are a gold mine.
With regard to 1Time's demise ( and to have a poke at the hornet's nest ). Now that they are gone and that there is one airline less using Durtbin's King Chucker Airpot can't we just close the latter down and readily admit that it is a colossal waste of money. The place is mostly unused and my dream job in another life would be to be one of those fat cops who patrol the terminal building stuffing their guts at the KFC trough.
Sorry, went off at a tangent but just want to have a chuckle and prod a bit

robmartza Wrote:

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> I fly SAA often, and when I can't, I still try and
> fly with Star Alliance ( as tonight on Lufthansa
> out of Frankfurt ). I enjoy racking up Voyager
> Miles and when I have cashed some of those in I
> have never had a problem ( I know a lot of people
> have other views on the Voyager programme ). On
> all routes I have travelled on with SAA the planes
> have always been close to full or full. This leads
> me to believe that the woes the company finds
> itself in are more managerial in nature. The money
> must be coming in when it comes to filling seats.
> The domestic routes alone are a gold mine.
> With regard to 1Time's demise ( and to have a poke
> at the hornet's nest ). Now that they are gone and
> that there is one airline less using Durtbin's
> King Chucker Airpot can't we just close the latter
> down and readily admit that it is a colossal waste
> of money. The place is mostly unused and my dream
> job in another life would be to be one of those
> fat cops who patrol the terminal building stuffing
> their guts at the KFC trough.
> Sorry, went off at a tangent but just want to have
> a chuckle and prod a bit


I find booking using Voyager miles is a nightmare.Only 3 options to fly to fly to Europe...pathetic.Bottom line is SAA is poorly run with too many employees and a few fat cats earning too much money for what they don't actually do!