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Cape
Town. – South African Airways (SAA) has managed to secure a guarantee from a
private bank for R437m to cover its air service licence guarantees.
SAA chief financial officer Wolf
Meyer said the National Treasury earlier refused the airline permission
to use an existing government guarantee of R1.6bn to cover its air
service licence responsibilities. This was the previous arrangement.
The
liability deriving from SAA’s air service licences pertains to tickets that
have been presold by the airline.
In
2011 SAA received an unqualified audit report; however, there was an emphasis of
matter placed on the air service licence guarantees.
“If
the airline goes belly-up for instance, there has to be a guarantee that the
airline can refund the tickets”, Meyer said.
The
airline appeared before the parliamentary committee on public
enterprises on Tuesday morning.
Meyer
said SAA has managed to secure the necessary guarantees through a
financial institution.
“This
pertains to both the R101m guarantee for domestic flights as well as the
R336m needed to cover international air service licence guarantees.”
Meyer
also said SAA has managed to settle most of its competition-related legal
challenges.
“There’s
only one outstanding matter, relating to Comair, that remains. All other antitrust matters have been settled.”