Two Airbuses, both A320s, have arrived at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport for SAA.
The aircraft have been in storage in Abu Dhabi and the airline says they have both undergone six-year maintenance C-checks in Abu Dhabi while SAA was in business rescue.
SAA Interim CEO, Thomas Kgokolo, said in a press release: “This is another noteworthy milestone towards full operational readiness.”
The two A320s (already in SAA livery) are believed to be two of the 10 originally leased by SAA before the airline returned all 39 of its leased aircraft to its lessors up to July 2020. The aircraft are configured to carry 138 passengers in business and economy class.
SAA says the aircraft will undergo minimal routine maintenance and re-installation of mandatory SAA equipment.
The original business rescue plan proposed a massive downsizing of the fleet and route network, followed by a slow expansion after the restructured SAA resumed operations. The plan envisaged SAA operating only six narrow-bodies in the restart phase, gearing up to include 10 small narrow-bodies (a category SAA has never operated before) to total of 19 aircraft (it was intended in the plan that this would be accomplished by November 2021, which is now unlikely). In the third phase, it was envisaged that the airline would add seven wide-bodies to end up with a fleet count of 26 aircraft, originally intended by December 2021 – an unlikely date for this outcome.
At the start of business rescue in December, SAA operated a fleet of 48 jets, of which 39 were leased, according to details in the Business Rescue Plan. The narrow-body fleet comprised seven Airbus A319s and 10 Airbus A320s. The wide-body fleet comprised six Airbus A330-200s, five A330-300s, seven A340-300Es, seven A340-600s and four Airbus A350-900s. The freighters were both B737Fs. Of this fleet, only five A340-300s and four A340-600s were owned. Airbus ceased production of the four-engine A340 aircraft type in 2011 because its higher fuel burn made it uneconomical against new twin-engine ultra-long-range aircraft.
