Sipho Sono, Mango’s business rescue practitioner was informed by the South African Airways (SAA) group that the Mango airline would no longer be part of the group.
The Covid-19 pandemic and all the restrictions that it encompasses ravaged the low-cost airline’s profitability. During the pandemic, the airline reported a loss of R157.14 million.
Mango attempted to navigate the situation by reducing normal operations to a limited flight schedule with two aircrafts only, but these efforts proved to be fruitless, and the airline ceased operations abruptly in July.
These conditions were exacerbated by numerous factors. SAA could not fund Mango during the rescue attempts, with the airline nearly R3 million in debt.
Nearly R2 million is owed to ticketholders who could not embark on flights, whether it be due to travel restrictions or due to Mango’s cease of operations. Moreover, the Department of Public enterprises failed to provide the amount disclosed and approved by parliament to aid the rescue plan.
Against this backdrop, the rescue plan entailed: ‘Having established that Mango will not form part of the SAA Group, the BR Practitioner has determined that for Mango to be rescued and for it to remain sustainable into the future, the Company requires an investor that would fund ongoing operations beyond the restructuring of the Company.’
Despite these plans in place, the airline asserted that if these plans do not succeed, that the primary goal would be to secure a private buyer: ‘If it is not possible to resume operations it may be more prudent to rather concentrate on the investor process and in that event contemplate a possible mothballing of operations until the investor has come on board.’
Picture: Bob Adams/Flickr Commons
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