CAPE TOWN, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- South African Airways (SAA) on Wednesday announced its intention to resume more flights as a disruptive strike entered the fifth day.
Flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town, Durban and Victoria Falls of Zimbabwe will be reinstated from Thursday, the airline said.
SAA is continuing to operate all international flights on an ongoing basis and without disruption and is now also successfully operating services to six destinations on the African continent, namely Accra, Lagos, Lusaka, Maputo, Windhoek and Harare on an ongoing basis, the airline said in a statement.
"We are pleased that SAA is now able to increase services and to offer our customers more flights on domestic and on the African continent and that all our international flights are back on schedule," SAA's Chief Commercial Officer Philip Saunders said.
SAA employees downed tools on Friday after the airline rejected their demand 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.
The strike brought SAA operations to a halt. But the airline managed to resume international flights on Sunday and regional flights on the Afrian continent on Tuesday.
SAA said some of its employees had returned to work, enabling the airline to resume international and regional flights as well as some domestic flights.
SAA would like to record its appreciation for those staff deciding to work despite receiving threats and intimidation from the unions, the airline said.
"It is clear that SAA's people are increasingly determined to put our customers first," said the airline.
SAA is continuing discussions with labour and remains committed to reach a prompt resolution in the best interests of all parties, Saunders said.
SAA has been in financial trouble for long 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.
