How many SAA staff does it take to get me a drink?

164.8 apparently - that's the number of SAA employees per aircraft, which makes it one of the most inefficient airlines in the world.
So government has just spent R5 billion bailing out a badly-run airline, with taxpayer's money. Clearly this is a smart move - keeping a troubled airline afloat at the expense of the public, while the fat cats at the top of the giant pyramid that is SAA, continue to rake in huge salaries & bonuses.
SAA's 2011 staff expense totalled R4.417bncan & I'd love to see the breakdown of their remuneration structure. No doubt a large percentage of that goes straight to the small group of top earners in the company, while the rest gets distributed to commoners working underneath them.
Very much like feudalism, whereby the guy at the top had everything.

But SAA can at least celebrate the fact that they are not the most inefficient airline in the world. That honour goes to Air India who have 221 employees per aircraft. It's worth noting however, that Air India have also been bailed out with taxpayer's money, by their government...