A letter seen by HotNews written by the national Director General, Dr Cassius Lubisi, to members of the cabinet at the behest of President Cyril Ramaphosa paints an even dire picture of the South African Airways (SAA) situation than the public has been led to believe.

From the letter it appears as if creditors are already knocking on the SAA door threatening to apply for the state airline to be liquidated.

The only method to block hostile liquidation attempts by creditors is for a company in distress to voluntarily apply for business rescue.

The letter informs cabinet that the President has decided to abandon the restructuring approach in favour of voluntary business rescue in order to avoid an implosion of the airline.

SAA has been crippled by debt, losses and the recent 8-day strike action which saw it lose a reported R52m per day.

There have been talks of bringing on board an equity partner and the Ethiopian Airways had initially shown interest but that deal appears to be on ice, at least for the moment.