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SA Airways chief under fire over Indian holiday
The chief executive of national carrier South African Airways (SAA) is under fire over a holiday he shared with the chairman of Jet Airways.
The chief executive of national carrier South African Airways (SAA) is under fire over a holiday he shared with the chairman of Jet Airways, weeks before the Indian airline won a bid for the lease of three SAA aircraft.
Khaya Ngqula was under pressure during the past week after the Sunday Times reported that Jet Airways had been awarded the rental contract for $925,000 monthly over rival Sahara's much more lucrative offer of $1.15 million, and also to better any other offer on the table.
Although SAA had refused consistently to answer queries around this deal, Ngqula was summoned to parliament where he explained that the decision to accept Jet's lower bid was not based on profit alone.
The Sunday Times reported here that Ngqula had spent a December holiday with Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet Airways, at a Goa retreat just three months after Ngqula took over as SAA chief and before negotiations for the lease of the three SAA Airbus A 340-300 aircraft began.
The airline did not respond to queries about this.
Analysts in the industry here seem to defend the deal with their view that the deal with Jet, a code share partner with SAA, would allow the South African airline easier access to Indian markets.
The Sunday Times also reported that Ngqula had first met Goyal in London in September last year. Ngqula had headed a delegation which signed a memorandum of agreement with Jet Airways for a strategic alliance with the company.
The alliance with Jet allows SAA, which now has daily flights from Johannesburg to Mumbai, to get its passengers connected to other regional and domestic destinations from Mumbai.
Industry sources said this assists in SAA fighting off its closest rival, Emirates, which despite not flying directly between South Africa and India attracts a great deal of traffic from here, headed for other sub continental destinations.
Jet Airways is also being targeted to become the Indian partner in the Star Alliance of international airlines, which SAA is expected to join in March next year.
