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The Johannesburg Labour Court may have granted South African Airways (SAA) an interdict against the cabin crew strike, but not before thousands of passengers were left stranded at airports throughout the country.
About 32 flights had to be cancelled.
“SAA only told me today that my flights to Port Elizabeth had been cancelled and there won’t be any flights for the whole day. However, I don’t have any alternative plan for today but to wait until tomorrow,” said Ann Skelton, a passenger affected by the strike.
The airline said it was doing everything possible to find common ground and settle matters that were currently under discussion.
“Negotiations are ongoing and the company remains optimistic that the strike could be averted,” it said.
The union members represented 1300 of the 1700 airline crew members at SAA
Members of the South African Cabin Crew Association were striking over their meal allowance, which hadn’t changed for the past six years.
They demanded it be increased from R1 720 to R2 232.
“Unfortunately there is going to be travel issues for the day, for those travelling nationally and internationally,” Christopher Shabangu, the association’s deputy president, told City Press.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance’s Alf Lees said the strike was a symptom of a much deeper crisis at the airline, and has called on the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim, to schedule an urgent meeting with SAA in Parliament next week.
“The fact is that Dudu Myeni, who behaves less like a chairperson, and more like a ‘corporate warlord’, has run the national airline into the ground, and bankrupted South African Airways,” Lees said.
A loss of R4.5 billion has been projected for 2016-2017. This is up from the R1.5 billion loss in 2015-16 and R5.6 billion loss in 2014-15.
Lees said that more than R19 billion in government guarantees had already been exhausted, which means that South African Airways would likely need another bailout soon.
“The fact is that South African Airways is now in a crisis which affects the sovereign credit rating of South Africa,” he said.
