One Time Airline to retrench 15% of its staff

One Time airlines say they need to let some employees go to keep the comany afloat(SABC)

Tags:

• One Time
• South African Airlines (SAA)
• Blacky Komani

Distressed low cost airline, One Time, is expected to retrench 15% of its staff across the country as a result of financial losses.

This comes amid criticism by smaller airlines of the state's decision to give South African Airlines (SAA) a R5 billion guarantee, which they say gives the national carrier an unfair advantage.   

One Time CEO, Blacky Komani, says retrenchments will be necessary as part of cost cutting measures.

There is about a 30% cut in our fleet. The fixed course that goes with that has to be proportional to the number of air crafts that we are operating. Part of that involves us exiting routes that are not profitable and maintaining routes that are profitable for the airline,” says Komani.

He says that the staff understands that there are going to be some cuts to save the airline.

“But should the airline grow and return to profitability we will re-employ some of the staff,” added Khomani.

Meanwhile, the board of Airlines of South Africa has criticised government for giving assistance only to SAA. Treasury has agreed to guarantee R5 billion in loans for SAA to enable it to borrow from financial markets.