South African Airways (SAA) has appointed advocate Vusi Pikoli to its leadership team. Adv. Pikoli joins SAA from 1 February 2019 as Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, reporting to SAA Group CEO Vuyani Jarana.
Tlali Tlali, SAA Spokesperson, says: “The appointment of adv. Pikoli is as important as it is significant in demonstrating our resolve to bringing capacity to strengthen the executive team to execute on our turnaround strategy with much urgency. He brings a wealth of experience and is known to be a disciplined and strong administrator.”
As the Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Adv. Pikoli will be responsible for Risk Management and Compliance functions in SAA comprising of aviation and general legislation compliance. He will also be responsible for the overall strategic and operational responsibility for the integrated Risk Management Strategy for SAA.
“We are resolute about our commitment to restore and maintain good governance at required levels at SAA as this is one of the important enablers for the effective implementation of our turnaround plan,” concludes Tlali.
Adv. Pikoli holds BA (Law), LLB, LLM, among other certifications. He has aviation industry exposure through his involvement in reinsurance of aircraft fleet while working for an insurance company.
Also, to improve customer experience on the SA brand, SA codeshare customers travelling on multiple sectors will be able to through-check their baggage to the final destination when booked on the SA code all the way, connecting between Mango, SAA and other codeshare partner operated flights.
As an example, customers will be able to through-check all the way from Durban-Johannesburg-Frankfurt-Stockholm when travelling on the SA code on a Mango operated flight from Durban – Johannesburg, then on an SAA operated flight from Johannesburg to Frankfurt and further on the SA code on a Lufthansa operated flight from Frankfurt to Stockholm.
The Mango codeshare now joins SAA’s other partner airlines, SA Express and SA Airlink which operate on the “SA” code, to allow customers to through-check baggage when their journey originates anywhere in South Africa.