Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
Relief
Passengers who feared losing their SAA flight bookings can finally breathe again
SOUTH African Airways will resume its full flight schedule this morning after the strike by pilots ended in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The industrial action which was fuelled by demands for a wage increase meant that all planes were grounded for a few days last week.
The wage strike disrupted domestic and international flights and passengers were stranded at airports around the country.
SAA CEO, Professor John Lamola said: "As part of the agreement that broke the deadlock in wage negotiations, engagements on a continuous enterprise improvement program will continue over the next eight weeks. We are committed to implementing work-life concessions that should enhance the productivity of our world-acclaimed pilots.”
The South African Airways Pilots Association had initially demanded a 30% pay increase, which was subsequently reduced to 15.7%. The pilots noted that the 30% pay hike was to make up for the 50% salary cut which occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.
SAA then offered an 8.46% raise backdated to April 2024, but it was rejected until the parties finally agreed to a total salary increase of 9.47% for the pilots.
The strike came at the start of the peak summer tourism season with many parties calling for a speedy resolution to the wage crisis so that the impasse would not affect the number of tourists in the country.
In November SAA posted a net profit of R252 million, the first time it has been out of the red since 2012.