Mango announced on Friday that it has finally managed to conclude an agreement with SAA Technical to continue maintenance, services and daily pre-flight checks on its aircraft as in the past.
"Mango is doing all within its power to restore operations to an acceptable level. We urge all our guests to always check our website for any changes to our flight schedule. We regret the inconvenience caused to all our stakeholders. We look forward to flying you again in the near future," the state-owned airline said in a statement.
SAAT suspended its maintenance services to Mango late last week. Both SAAT and Mango are subsidiaries of state-owned South African Airways (SAA). Unlike SAA, SAAT and Mango are not in business rescue. SAAT had suspended its maintenance services to SAA and Mango due to non-payment.
The maintenance of two Mango aircraft did, however, continue because it had been paid for by the lessor. Unlike SAA, Mango has been operating normal commercial flights since the start of lockdown level 2 - the only state-owned airline having been able to do so since SA Express is in provisional liquidation.
As part of its contingency plans, Mango continued operating by means of third party aircraft lease arrangements as well as using some of its own aircraft to fly its passengers.
In the business rescue plan of SAA, for which government still has to obtain funding, it mentions R1 billion each needed for Mango and SAAT to deal with historic debt.