South African Airways (SAA) subsidiary Mango Airlines will enter into a local form of bankruptcy protection known as business rescue, SAA's interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo told eNCA television on Monday.

SAA, which itself exited business rescue in April, is one of a handful of South African state companies that depended on government bailouts, placing the national budget under huge strain.

“What we can say is that the board and shareholders have agreed that Mango will go into business rescue,” Kgokolo said in an interview with eNCA.

“We are currently in consultation with our key stakeholders in terms how we can manage that particular process.”

The government announced in June that it was selling a 51% stake in SAA to the Takatso consortium to give the airline a new lease of life.

SAA had been under a form of bankruptcy protection since December 2019, but its fortunes worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic and all its operations were mothballed in September 2020 when funds ran low.