Hope for SAA as experience takes the helm?

When I heard the news that former SA Express head Siza Mzimela would become the new CEO of SAA, I allowed myself a moment of optimism.

Service levels

For starters, unlike so many of her predecessors, she has actually had experience running an airline.

Her years at SA Express suggested to me that she has a fine understanding of the strength of marketing and the fact that it is not just an optional extra for a business but something essential. Especially when it comes to down to earth and in-flight customer service. Something that has been lacking in SAA but noticeably much better at SA Express.

I can remember receiving an email from a former SAA chairman telling me that when it comes to reorganising an airline, one has to concentrate only on the financials and that "marketing can come later".

Hope they don't buy that

Hopefully SAA chair Cheryl Carolus and CEO Siza Mzimela don't buy that argument and that we are going to start seeing an improvement in customer service and other marketing elements so important in the quest to retain customer and gain new markets.

I can't make up my mind whether to hold my breath or not. Frankly, I have been let down by SAA so often.

Mzimela had eight years of experience at SAA before taking over as CEO of SA Express, so she knows the problems.

Impossible without marketing

It will really be a breath of fresh air if marketing does get some sort of priority alongside the drive to start putting the national airline into profit. It seems logical to me that, without any marketing application, it is pretty much impossible to rescue any kind of business that involves dealing directly with the public.

And there are precedents for the power of marketing in the airline business in South Africa. One just has to look at BA/Comair and Kulula which have made money in really tough times. Both put a huge amount of effort into marketing.

On Thursday, 25 February 2010, I listened to an interview with Mzimela on the radio. She sounds confident and she sounds like she knows what she is talking about.

Let's hope that, at last, SAA have got the right person for the job. The airline has been a headless chicken for far too long.