CAPE TOWN, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- South African Airways (SAA) announced on Sunday that it will reinstate international flights which were suspended as a result of industrial action.
From Sunday night, flights to New York, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, Perth, London, Frankfurt, and Washington will be resumed, the airline said.
SAA advised passengers to report to their departure airport as normal when in possession of a rebooked itinerary.
The airline said in a statement that it had taken the decision to reinstate international service on its route network after assessment of its personnel numbers who are available and willing to operate the flights.
Whilst some employees are on strike and have elected to do so in exercising their rights, the airline has a duty to render services to its customers where it has employees who have elected to report for work, the statement said.
All employees have rights protected in law on both sides of the divide, SAA said.
"On behalf of South African Airways, I wish to apologize to all our passengers for the inconvenience and frustration caused by the cancellation of flights as a result of ongoing industrial action by the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA)," said SAA Chief Commercial Officer Philip Saunders.
"We hope all our customers understand that the cancellations were beyond our control. We pledged to rebook all passengers caught up in the flight cancellations. We are working hard towards this goal and we are pleased to resume flights to all our international destinations," Saunders said.
A strike, organized by the SACCA and NUMSA, brought SAA domestic and international flights to a halt on Friday.
The work stoppage came after the national flag carrier rejected demands for an eight-percent wage increase and planned to go ahead with its retrenchment of 944 jobs - almost a fifth of its employees, as part of its turnaround strategy.
Cash-strapped SAA has relied on government bailouts for continued operation mainly due to poor management. Over the past 13 years, the flag carrier has incurred over 28 billion rand (about 1.9 billion U.S. dollars) in cumulative losses.
This loss in revenue is compounded by the fact that the airline is already technically insolvent, without sufficient capital to fund its daily operations.
