South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) is to be provided with an additional ZAR6.488 billion (USD568.6 million) in state-backed guarantees the South African Ministry of Finance has announced. The funding will enable the struggling airline to finalise its annual financial statements for 2013/14, making it possible for the airline to hold its annual general meeting (AGM) on January 30, 2015.

Last year, Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, requested the funding after she disclosed that neither South African Airways nor its sister carrier South African Express (EXY, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) were in a position to table their respective Integrated Reports due to delays in their finalisation of the various reports that must accompany their annual financial statements.

As part of the Ministry's requirements to secure the additional funding, South African Airways interim CEO Nico Bezuidenhout earlier this year unveiled a 90 Day Action Plan aimed at preparing the ground ahead of the full-scale implementation of the airline's Long-Term Turnaround Strategy (LTTS). The 90 Day plan, which is subject to both management and government stress tests, requires the airline address several critical areas including its solvency, capital optimisation, a review of its network, and the possibility of attracting outside investment.

"...the Minister, the board, the acting CEO, and the CFO have agreed that to stabilise the company’s financial position, elements of the long term strategy must be implemented with speed even as the board continues to refine and update the strategy," the Treasury said in a statement. "In addition, short-term and medium-term milestones have been identified and will form part of the shareholder pact that the Minister of Finance will sign with the board."

Early last week, Bezuidenhout announced that the 90 Day Action Plan was proceeding to schedule adding that so far, his "War cabinet" had completed a review of the carrier's long-haul international network as well as a re-evaluation of its fleet requirements.

“Network optimisation is key and we expect to make more announcements regarding commercial efficiencies in the near future,” he said.

Once finalized, proposals on its network structure, fleet strategy, and company structure will be submitted to Pretoria for consideration.