South African Airways increases African flights
11 August 2014
In response to "tremendous growth" in demand for premium travel in Africa, South
African Airways will increase its Airbus flights between Johannesburg and Lagos,
Nigeria, to eight times a week from the beginning of September, the airline
announced in a statement last week.
This increase to SAA's "already extensive African flight schedule" aims to offer
customers more travel options on the continent as well as meet increased cargo
demand, the airline said.
Route network
It will also offer "seamless travel" for passengers en route to Perth, Australia, Hong
Kong and mainland China.
"The increase on the Lagos route follows on previous increases to the airline's Africa
route network, in keeping with SAA's Gaining Altitude strategy, where the focus is on strengthening our presence in Africa," said Kendy Phohleli, SAA's acting general
manager commercial.
"All flights will be operated with a long-haul
Airbus aircraft offering lie-flat seats in
business class," Pholeli said.
SAA has also made changes to its international route network, where the
Johannesburg-Mumbai route has been reduced to six weekly frequencies. The same
number of seats are on offer, however, as SAA is using a bigger aircraft.
"The Tuesday Mumbai departure will no longer be operated as this flight historically
shows low demand," Phohleli said. He said frequencies on low-performing routes were
constantly being adjusted to achieve and maintain commercial sustainability, "while
supporting South Africa's development agenda".
Other Africa routes on which weekly frequencies were recently increased include:
- Johannesburg-Harare: from 18 to 19 flights a week
- Johannesburg-Lusaka: 20 to 21
- Johannesburg-Abidjan: from two to three
- Johannesburg-Blantyre: from two to three
- Johannesburg-Dar es Salaam: from 13 to
14
- Johannesburg-Kinshasa: from four to six
- Johannesburg-Nairobi: from 10 to 11
- Johannesburg-Ndola: from three to four
- Johannesburg-Windhoek: 20 to 21
SAinfo reporter