A last-minute agreement has seen South African Airways pilots return to work after a two-day strike disrupted flights across Africa and beyond.

South African Airways (SAA) announced early on Saturday that the pilots' strike, which began on Thursday, had been suspended following successful wage negotiations with the South African Airways Pilots' Association (Saapa). The resolution was expected to restore SAA's operations to a full flight schedule by Sunday.

Although the strike has been suspended, a source close to the matter told Daily Maverick that negotiations about improving work-life balance issues for the pilots were ongoing. The pilots are eager to get back to work, recover the schedule and get their passengers to where they need to go while the negotiations take place.

Salary negotiations reportedly resulted in an additional 1% increase for pilots, bringing the total increase to 9.47%.

"As part of the agreement that broke the deadlock in wage negotiations, engagements on a continuous enterprise improvement programme will continue over the next eight weeks," said SAA's interim chief executive officer, Professor John Lamola, on Saturday.

"We are committed to implementing work-life concessions that should enhance the productivity of our world-acclaimed pilots."

By midday on Saturday, more than 100 pilots had returned to duty and the airline resumed regular operations....