The high court has placed SA Express (SAX) in final liquidation on Wednesday, after it went into provisional liquidation already in April 2020 when a business rescue attempt failed.
It had not operated since.
Repeated attempts to conclude a sale of the airline failed, and in March this year the provisional liquidators announced the reopening of the bidding process. This attempt, however, also appears to have failed.
The provisional liquidators indicated in 2020 that the amount to be raised was R50 million. At the time, the sale by the liquidators of the airline's few tangible assets raised about R30 million.
The Fly SAX consortium, made up of former employees, offered R5 million for the intangible assets of SAX, which essentially comprised the licences and related routes.
However, early in August this year, the Air Services Licensing Council cancelled the licences of SAX on the grounds that it was not complying with the licensing provisions of the International Air Services Act. The loss of its licences meant SAX had no intangible assets left, either.
SAX has liabilities of more than R900 million, including outstanding salary payments to employees. The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture's report made mention of various questionable dealings linked to the airline.
The Dynamic People's Union of South Africa (Dypusa) says it was a "sad day" for aviation in SA.
"We believe the SA government could have intervened. Now workers have no hope of returning. The aftermath of looting and state capture gave rise to the demise of this regional airline," comments the union's general secretary Mashudu Raphetha.