Cash strapped South African national carrier says it needs a capital injection of $540 million from December to sustain operations into 2019.
South African Airways (SAA) made the revelation during a parliamentary presentation over the state of its affairs.
The airline which relies heavily on government guarantees has not generated a profit since 2011.
The South Africa finance minister Tito Mboweni had earlier in the month proposed shutting down the airline, which continues to drain government coffers, a proposal shot down by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In addition, SAA said it would need a further 4 billion rand ($288 million) from March next year.
“Currently we don’t have an optimal capital structure and as a result of that we are dependent on debt which is not good… the banks are pushing now for much more better support from the shareholder to put in place for us,” SAA’s interim chief financial officer Deon Fredericks said.
The national carrier indicated that banks had refused to lend the company 3.5 billion rand to plug a liquidity hole from December unless they received additional commitments from the government.
SAA is expected to make a 5.2 billion rand loss in the 2019 financial year and another 1.9 billion in 2020 before swinging into profit a year later, the presentation showed.
