Once a global carrier with a network spanning six continents, in the last decade the Johannesburg-based carrier entered into a spiral of high costs, poor performances, declining load factors and corruption which brought the balance sheet into a deeper and deeper red. In December 2019, the government of South Africa announced that SAA would enter into bankruptcy protection and, folllowing the Covid pandemic, in May 2020 the carrier stopped all operations. A rescue plan aimed at searching investors and funding, announced in spring 2020, has not come to any result and on 30 September the airline announced that it was suspending all operations. During 2020, the airline returned 4 Airbus A319s, all 10 A320s, all 6 A330-200s, 4 A330-300s, 3 A340-300s, 3 A340-600s, and all 4 new A350-900s to their respective lessors, remaining with a fleet of just 12 aircraft. The carrier’s website states that all SAA-operated flights (domestic and regional) are suspended until end February 2021  and all international flights are suspended until 27 March 2021. Domestic flights are currently operated by its llow-cost subsidiary Mango. (Photo Wikimedia Commons / Julian Herzog)