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BELLY-UP: JOINS COMAIR, FLY BLUE CRANE AND SA EXPRESS

- Hein Kaiser

Rounded low-cost airline Mango may finally be wound down, after a potential buyer backed out and four years of business rescue amounted to naught. The carrier's demise sees it join Comair, presently in liquidation, Fly Blue Crane and SA Express on the list of belly-upped airlines in the past decade. Only SAA survived business rescue.

Passengers who still hold tickets on the carrier will now join a long list of creditors and will approximately receive 11.48c in the rand, according to business rescue practitioner Sipho Sono.

The company will hopefully not be liquidated, as there are no assets left, he added. "There is only the cash in the bank."

The airline was launched in 2006 as a response by SAA to changing market conditions, the proliferation of low-cost carriers and the concomitant market share that it cost the flag carrier.

At one point, Mango was the fastest growing domestic carrier.

Founding chief executive Nico Bezuidenhout said it was incredibly sad. "Mango innovated, it led the pack in local aviation.