AIRLINES
- HERE TO FLY THE FLAG Despite the controversial arrival of a strategic equity partner for SAA, Mr Thomas Kgokolo is still the CEO, albeit only an interim one. Guy Leitch asks him how he is managing a job many consider impossible.
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AA HAS HAD 20 ACTING or supposedly permanent Chief Executives in the past 10 years – and Thomas Kgokolo is the fifth in the past five years. Is this job not the ultimate ‘hospital pass’? After all, a well-qualified and experienced South African airline CEO turned the job down – twice.
After all, SAA is a business like any other and I have significant business transformation experience which will enable me to relaunch the airline.” THE MAIN TASK
the mix of SAA pilots should be representative
Kgokolo hedged his bets by accepting the job only as an Interim CEO. He says, “I told myself that I will apply my experience in business and skills to contribute to the airline’s turn around, as the success of the new SAA is a reflection on all of us as South Africans, so I am here to rebuild SAA into an airline that all South Africans can be proud of.
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Kgokolo says his biggest challenge is the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the airline. “My main task is to get SAA back where it belongs – in the skies and flying the South African flag high with the intent of recapturing the hearts of our customers.”
In the absence of a detailed strategic plan, he says his main aim is “to stabilise SAA during this transition, so that the airline is on a sound footing for the takeover by the new Strategic Equity Partner (SEP). The closure
