Airlines talk merger

Johannesburg – South African Airways, South African Express Airways and South African Airlink are holding exploratory talks to discuss the consolidation of their services and possible merger of the two feeder airlines.

SAA president Andre Viljoen said he had met South African Express chief Boni Dibate and South African Airlink head Roger Foster to discuss how to consolidate services and reduce costs.

Express Airways is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transnet, which also owns SAA. SAA owns 10 per cent of Airlink, with the rest held by private investors.

Both airlines provide an extensive feeder network for SAA to almost anywhere in South Africa.

On a different tack, Mr Vijoen said SAA had reduced its expectations for 2002 from reaching breakeven to modestly narrowing its losses because of the sharp depreciation of the rand and a softening market.

SAA posted a headline loss of R735-million in the year to March 31, 2001, compared with a R32- million loss in its previous financial year. The company was initially budgeting for a headline profit of R50-million for the current financial year, he said. – I-Net Bridge