South African Airways (SAA) is set to return to the skies on September 23, but the airline has expressed concern, indicating that it might be an uphill task to get stakeholders, including the passengers, to regain trust in the carrier.

The national carrier will resume flights after 16 months of being grounded due to viability challenges, despite repeated government bailouts and implementation of business rescue plan.

The operational failure of the SAA has allegedly been caused by corruption, and the inescapable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Resumption of flights comes three months after the government ceded part of its airline stake to Takatso Consortium, who are now the majority shareholders with a 51 percent stake.

The airline's interim chief executive officer Thomas Kgokolo said that winning back the stakeholders' trust would "take time."

However, he expressed great optimism in the airline's team's ability to turn things around, saying that "with the confidence and the enthusiasm our staff are showing ahead of our take off, I'm confident we will achieve the set goals quickly."

(With input from agencies)