Mango Airlines set to cut employee salaries by 50%

CAPE TOWN – Mango Airlines, the low-cost wing of SAA, is set to cut its employees’ salaries by up 50percent. 

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan told Parliament during a briefing on the state of state-owned entities including SAA, Eskom and Transnet that Mango’s employees had taken salary cuts voluntarily. Gordhan said the salary cuts would be made beased on pay grades, with the lowest-paid employees taking the smallest cut. 

He said that money would be used to help cash-strapped SAA operate beyond the end of May. 

“Mango has been a reasonably well-run airline and we are waiting to see what kind of developments there are, both domestically and globally, in respect of low-cost airlines and what their future is,” said Gordhan. 

A Mango spokesperson confirmed the salary cuts but said the airline needed to first send an official communique to all employees. The airline industry has been one of the biggest casualties of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. On Friday, Ethiopian Airlines said the continent’s aviation industry would suffer losses of up to $6billion in sales this year due to travel bans.