The sale of Mango Airlines by the SA Government to an unknown buyer should now be imminent.

The process of disposing of the airline has been grinding along since mid-2021 with the latest delay caused by SAA raising issues about the sale which needed to be smoothed out before the deal could be submitted to the DPE’s Minister, Pravin Gordhan. A renewed application was submitted to Gordhan on November 28, according to a report by Mango’s Business Rescue Practitioner, Sipho Sono, who is hopeful of a speedy resolution of the sale.

The next step would be due diligence and, hopefully, approval in terms of the PFMA.

Sono had originally wanted to see the airline operating again by this month (December).

Mango was grounded because of unpaid Acsa bills in July 2021 and entered business rescue in August of that year.

Mango has no assets but it does have around R2.8bn (€154m) in debt, aside from the R130m (€7.1m) it owes ticketholders in refunds for flights that never took place after it was grounded. Reports are that the DPE has already spent R734m (€40.3m) on the rescue process to avoid liquidation. 

Mango's operating licences have been suspended by the Air Services Licensing Council pending clarity with the business rescue process, but Sono has already said he believes that the suspension would be swiftly overturned and the licences restored for the new buyer of the airline.

Mango had the rights for the only direct scheduled flights between South Africa and Zanzibar, which ceased when the fleet was grounded. Other airlines have applied for this direct route but, so far, those applications are pending and all access to Zanzibar is via indirect routes or on direct flights chartered by AfricaStay.

Aside from the Zanzibar flights, the local industry would welcome more seats on local flights to temper the current high fares on South African routes.