SAA announces another profitable year, five months late

With no apparent sense of urgency, the South African Airways (SAA) Group has announced some key figures of its earnings for the year ended March 2025, five months later than required. As a state-owned entity (SOE), SAA is required under the Companies Act to prepare its annual financial statements within six months of its financial year end, while the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) determines when the results must bepresented to parliament. SAA announced that the group, including subsidiaries such Air Chefs and SAA Technical, made a R155 million net profit and R30 million for the airline during the period.

The announcement was made on Friday during the group’s Annual General Meeting. Before taxpayers and the Auditor-General (AG) celebrate that things are improving at SAA, the airline must make its annual report and full audited financial statements available. The national airline said the statements will be made available for public scrutiny once they have been presented before parliament, which was supposed to be done by the end of September 2025.

It seems the national carrier has taken the first step by sharing the financial results with Transport Minister Barbara Creecy. Thepress statementby SAA also includes some of the airline’s key figures. Apart from the R155 million net profit made by the group, it said it has generated revenue of R8.8 billion, a 35.89% year-on-year increase on the R6.5 billion in revenue generated in the previous financial year.

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“SAA’s cash and cash equivalents position remained strong, at R1.9 million, at the end of FY2024-25,” said the national carrier. “The airline has no interest-bearing borrowings at year’s end and R6.649-million in equity.” The national carrier said it was greenlit to increase the fleet to 21 aircraft during the financial year; however, only 14 aircraft were in service by the end of the financial year. Currently, the airline flies 19 aircraft. SAA has since rebuilt its network to a diversified portfolio of 17 routes.

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