South Africa agrees to privatise grounded state airline

South Africa has agreed to sell the federal government’s majority stake in the cash-strapped national airlines, the South African Airways (SAA), to a consortium that includes a local private equity firm and a jet leasing company, the country’s public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan informed on Friday. The SAA, the second-largest airline in the entire continent, was grounded in December last year and had since been a drain on state finances, news agencies reported.

The SAA, despite being one of the largest airlines in Africa — second only to the Ethiopian Airlines — had not turned in a profit since 2011. It was placed under a state-approved rescue plan in December 2019 to save it from collapse,