South African Airways Technical (SAAT) has resumed performing maintenance services for sister company South African Airways (SAA) after withdrawing them due to non-payment of bills.
Last week, Aviation Week reported that another SAA Group company, low-cost carrier Mango, was in “sensitive” discussions with SAAT over a similar issue.
On Oct. 4, SAAT revealed that after suspending maintenance services to four airlines due to outstanding payments, it had reached agreements with two of them, SAA and Mango.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with at least two of our customers and will continue to have discussions with two others as we seek to find a resolution and settlement on these matters,” said SAAT CEO Adam Voss.
Maintenance services for SAA and Mango resumed last week, with Mango stating on Twitter that the agreement covered maintenance, servicing and pre-flight checks for its aircraft.
“As part of a recovery strategy and a way forward, we agreed with these customers that SAAT will receive an upfront payment for services that must be rendered,” Voss concluded.
Under-administration SAA suspended scheduled services last week but the agreement with SAAT meant that it would be able to operate the charter flights planned for this week, SAAT said.
South Africa’s government has indicated it will provide around $600 million to relaunch the airline as a restructured operation, although no funding has materialized thus far.
Liquidation remains a real possibility, and therefore so is the prospect of SAAT becoming an independent MRO provider in the not-too-distant future.
Accordingly, it needs to maintain good relationships with its existing customers--ties that were coming under strain even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
For example, Comair suffered a big increase in costs resulting from parts shortages and scheduling problems at SAAT, all of which eventually pushed it to transfer maintenance work to Lufthansa Technik.
Affected by this the problems of SAA, which owed it significant sums, and then the hammer blow of the pandemic, Comair entered administration earlier this year, although former management is working on a rescue plan.
