South African Airways (SAA) interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo says plans to restart the airline are already underway.
Kgokolo says the company will soon start the process of retraining its pilots and reviewing its air safety compliance. He says they also plan to come up with a marketing strategy aimed at regaining old customers.
SAA’s interim board appointed Kgokolo a qualified chartered accountant with a wealth of experience as a non-executive director for various organisations.
He took over the reins from the business rescue process and is set to facilitate the airline’s process of getting a strategic equity partner.
Kgokolo says his priority for now is for the SAA to resume flights.
“We need to do training for the pilot, remember they have not been flying for a while. Secondly from the compliance perspective we need to ensure that we are at a right level. But more importantly we need to make sure that from a marketing perspective we are organised so that we can reach out to our customers….” says Kgokolo.
He also says operationally at corporate level the compliance level must be done adequately as well.
In conversation with SAA’s new interim CEO Thomas Kgolo:
The appointment brings the airline’s 15 months business rescue process to a close. The SAA business rescue process was completed at the end of March.
The national flag carrier was placed under business rescue in December 2019 in the face of allegations of mismanagement.
The business rescue process trimmed the airline’s workforce from just under 5 000 to 1 000. But more changes could be on the cards for the airline.
A new strategic equity partner is expected to bring capital and expertise into the new SAA. This may result in the appointment of a new CEO and board.
However for Kgokolo the main focus is on getting the energy back into the organisation.
He says, “My role here is to ensure that the energy is back, the momentum is back and ensure we build a solid team. Combine those who remained with us and those we get in the market that are capable of taking us forward because we can’t continue the way we did in the past.”
SAA business rescue practitioners on concluding their work:
