South African Airways Warrants Better Connections to African Destinations for Asian Travellers

Businessmen and leisure travellers from Hong Kong and Asia can now have better access to African destinations with South African Airways' (SAA) enhanced scheduling and additional aircrafts.

SAA has significantly expanded its services within the Continent of Africa, increasing its capacity in the market by over 50% to certain destinations.

SAA now flies to 21 African destinations - among them Harare, Victoria Falls, Bulawayo, Maputo, Dar es Salaam, Entebbe, Nairobi, Lusaka, Luanda, Mauritius, Windhoek, Lagos, Abidjan, Accra, Blantyre, Lilongwe, Gabarone, Maseru, Manzini, Walvis Bay and Eros -192 times a week.

As a result of enhanced scheduling and additional aircrafts, SAA is able to grow both its domestic market in South Africa and increase its services into Africa. The airline has increased its services from its Johannesburg hub to Nairobi from 4 to 7 round trips per week; Victoria Falls from 9 to 11 flights per week; Harare from 10 to 11 per week; Lusaka from 6 to 7 flights per week; and, Maputo from 8 to 10 weekly flights. Subject to route rights and regulatory approval, the airline also plans to increase its flights to Harare to 13 per week, Bulawayo from 3 weekly flights to 7 and 14 flights per week to Victoria Falls.

When most other international and inter-continental airlines are reducing the numbers of flights to Zimbabwe, which severely inconvenienced passengers, SAA, however, has scheduled even more flights to the destination.

Commenting on the flight additions, Mr Phillip Bekker, SAA's Regional General Manager, North Asia said: "We currently have more flights to more African destinations than any other carrier. With these new flight increases as well as additional planned expansion in 2001, we will be able to further improve our service for our customers and alliance partners in Asia and around the world. Travellers can now enjoy increased flight availability and better connections to African destinations."

"The new developments and time changes on certain routes will assist business people in their travels as they no longer have to plan meetings around limited flight schedules but at their convenience. SAA is also consistently boosting tourism into the country. The increased frequency in and out of South Africa will assist in expanding the regional markets," Bekker added.