SAA under fire for cutting route to Buenos Aires

Former South African ambassador to Argentina Tony Leon has publically derided South African Airways (SAA) for closely the loss-making Buenos Aires-Johannesburg since it has damaged relations between the two countries. Leon said the closure of the route questions SAA’s role as a state-owned airline since it is not serving the country’s strategic needs. SAA lost R50m a year on the route since it suffers from double taxation as Argentina refused to budge on the issue of tax and the route was also served with older aircraft. Conversely SAA’s Sao Paolo route is still operating since a double taxation agreement had