SAA ANNOUNCES EXPANSION PLAN DESPITE GLOBAL DOWNTURN IN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRETORIA 002754 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED SIPDIS DEPT FOR EEB/TRA/OTP DEPT FOR EEB/TRA/AN/TERRI ROBL DAKAR FOR FAA REP FAA FOR NANCY ANGELO E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAIR ECON EIND EINV SF SUBJECT: SAA ANNOUNCES EXPANSION PLAN DESPITE GLOBAL DOWNTURN IN TOURISM REF: A. PRETORIA 2612 B. DURBAN 22 ¶1. (SBU) Summary. South African Airways (SAA) recently announced network expansion plans amidst a global downturn in tourism. The airline is expected to complete a two-year restructuring program in March 2009, which would allow it to increase service and implement a strategy to create hubs in Johannesburg and Dakar, Senegal. SAA leadership would like to position itself to take advantage of long-term tourism growth and the 2010 FIFA World Cup with the expansion. However, the global economic slowdown has already started to reverse tourism growth trends in South Africa, which could limit SAA's balance sheet and ability to borrow funds for the expansion. Industry and government officials expressed skepticism about SAA's ability to acquire the required aircraft to meet the goals of the ambitious network expansion program. Given the current budgetary climate and criticism from other South Africa-based carriers, officials did not believe additional government funding would be available for SAA in the near-term. End Summary. -------------- AMBITIOUS EXPANSION PLANS TO FOLLOW RESTRUCTURING PROGRAM -------------- ¶2. (U) SAA CEO Khaya Ngqula unveiled an ambitious network expansion plan at a Star Alliance conference on December 12. Ngqula announced that SAA would be launching flights to new destinations as well as increasing capacity on some of its existing routes as it is "ready to consider life after restructuring and is about to enter a moderate growth phase". He asserted that, "at a time when many other airlines are consolidating or reducing their flights, the success of SAA's restructuring program has left the airline well placed to explore growth plans for the future." The growth plan to take the airline to 2020 is currently being finalized for adoption in the new financial year starting April 2009. ¶3. (U) SAA began its restructuring strategy in March 2007 when state-owned transport and logistics group Transnet shed the loss-making airline (Reftel A). To date, the South African Government (SAG) has provided SAA with more than $1.1 billion in subsidies and bailouts to revive and restructure the national carrier. The restructuring program will be completed in March 2009. Revenue grew nine percent to R22.26 billion ($2.3 billion) in 2007/2008, with revenue growth expected to again exceed the target set for the 2008/2009 financial year. The airline also started to post an operating profit (nearly $12 million) in 2007/2008, but this figure did not include the costs of the restructuring program. According to Ngqula, SAA is now at the point where it can think about growth in order to position SAA for the future. -------------- SAA MARKETS ITSELF AS AFRICAN AIRLINE WITH GLOBAL REACH -------------- ¶4. (U) The network expansion strategy focuses on making "SAA an African carrier with global reach," enhancing Johannesburg and Dakar as major international hubs, and moving capacity to more profitable African routes. SAA Head of Network Development Jason Krause explained that the airline has managed to acquire fifth freedom rights, which will allow it to make full use of its West African Qrights, which will allow it to make full use of its West African services. Krause said SAA would be in a strong position to fly passengers originating in North America to West African destinations as a result of these rights. North American passengers would be able to fly to West Africa from Washington via Dakar or from New York via Johannesburg. ¶5. (U) An additional flight is being added to the Libreville (Gabon) route from March, which would be extended to fly onwards to Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Dakar in April. SAA also plans to begin service to Douala, Cameroon, which would also connect in Dakar. The Douala flight is still awaiting regulatory approval and is expected to operate twice a week starting April. SAA said it had also forged a commercial agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) national airline Lignes Ariennes Congolaises (LAC) allowing for an additional two flights from Johannesburg to the DRC. ¶6. (U) On its overseas network, SAA announced that it would increase its Perth, Australia service from five to six per week starting PRETORIA 00002754 002 OF 003 July. SAA plans to operate non-stop service to New York from May. SAA would also launch a new route to Buenos Aires, Argentina to complement its existing daily South American service to Sco Paulo, Brazil. Flights on the route between Johannesburg and Buenos Aires would begin on April 8, 2009, with a twice weekly service. ¶7. (U) SAA executives hope that adding a second destination in South America would strengthen the airline's position as the preferred carrier between South America, Asia, and Australia. "We are positive that by adding more seats in the market we will meet the strong demand from both continents wishing to benefit from our shorter flying times and superior service via the South Atlantic route," said Ngqula. Johannesburg would serve as a hub for these connections. -------------- SAA TO CAPITALIZE ON WORLD CUP TOURISM BOOST -------------- ¶8. (U) SAA is hoping that long-term tourism growth and the 2010 FIFA World Cup would provide the impetus required to sustain its expansion. The SAG is estimating about 500,000 foreigners would travel to South Africa for the World Cup. According to projections South Africa is on track to receive 10 million tourists per year by 2010 (Reftel B). Fewer than 600,000 thousand tourists visited the country in 1994, but the numbers have increased exponentially since the end of the apartheid regime. In 2007, over nine million tourists visited South Africa. ¶9. (U) In the short-term, the global economic slowdown could impact SAA's bottom-line and ability to borrow money for the expansion. The latest statistics from Stats-SA revealed that the global economic downturn has already hit tourism. Monthly tourism arrivals data from August and September revealed the first signs of decline in years. During the month of September 2008, the total number of overseas tourist arrivals declined 12.9 percent compared to September 2007. The greatest declines were in arrivals from key European and Asian markets. Growth declined in arrivals from the top three overseas markets (the UK, the U.S., and Germany). A comparison of figures from September 2007 and September 2008 shows that there were significant decreases in the number of travelers arriving from UK (down from 35,915 to 29,976); the U.S. (down from 23,405 to 21,590) and Germany (down from 21,796 to 17,377). -------------- AIRCRAFT ACQUISITION COULD ALSO PROVE PROBLEMATIC -------------- ¶10. (U) Industry analysts questioned SAA's ability to acquire aircraft for the planned network expansion. SAA announced that it would use an Airbus A340-200 for the Buenos Aires flight, but did not provide aircraft details for any of the other slated new routes. SAA has been trying to lease three narrow-body aircraft for some time to address short and medium-term needs. Krause noted that aircraft such as the Boeing 737-800 would be an ideal interim solution, but funding remained a challenge. He said SAA would reactivate its long-term aircraft acquisition program once the restructuring was completed in 2009. "We want to rationalize our fleet. Ideally we would like not more than one supplier for the narrow body aircraft and one for the wide bodies," he told the Qnarrow body aircraft and one for the wide bodies," he told the press. ¶11. (SBU) Officials at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Foreign Affairs also expressed skepticism about SAA's ability to meet the new network expansion goals. Enterprise Florida had recently lobbied these officials to initiate talks for a re-instated Cape Town-Miami service without much success. Officials told Transport Officer that they did not believe the technical (aircraft) and economic conditions were right to pursue the Miami route expansion at the time. In response to Embassy queries following the SAA network expansion announcement, DTI officials agreed to discuss the Miami route proposal again early next year. However, they still expected SAA to approach the SAG again for additional financial support, which is likely to increase criticism from competing South Africa-based low-cost carriers (Reftel A). -------------- PRETORIA 00002754 003 OF 003 Comment -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Comment: SAA has targeted projected high-growth regions for its network expansion plan. Africa is expected to be the region with the most potential for growth in the aviation/tourism sectors due to the lack of existing service/routes. SAA will need to expand and modernize its fleet in order to implement this network expansion plan. However, given the current global economic slowdown and the domestic political and budgetary climate it will experience difficulties convincing the SAG to continue to provide additional funding as it completes its restructuring program and revise its network strategy. Many industry analysts and SAG officials remain critical of SAA management, despite the strides the company has made in reducing costs and increasing revenue growth. End Comment. BOST