South African Airways (SAA) has on Monday given some direction for the way forward after battling to keep its planes in the sky.

It assured customers that the airline was here to stay and no more route cuts were expected, despite a number of them being cancelled at the end of this month. Some local and international flights including those to Sao Paulo and Munich are set to be discontinued.

Speaking at the Meetings Africa 2020 conference in Sandton, the airline’s acting chief commercial officer (CCO) Manish Raniga said the airline was now looking at what he called “price stimulation” to become competitive.

Raniga said a number of routes would close but this didn’t mean they wouldn’t be re-opened at a later stage. He said while it was up to the Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) to decide on jobs, SAA was here to stay.