February 19, 2007

South African Airways strengthens international route network

South African Airways (SAA) is committed to grow its international route network, according to Nomfanelo Magwentshu, the airline's general manager for business management Friday.
"In keeping with our network strategy to fly to friendly international gateways and taking advantage of our Star Alliance members' hubs, we will add Munich as a second German city to our network," said Magwentshu.

He said SAA will wrap up its operations to Zurich, Switzerland, at the end of April, but will continue to maintain its presence in Zurich by leveraging alliances with fellow Star Alliance member carriers.
This route will still be serviced through a code share agreement with Swiss International Air Lines, a Star Alliance member, he said.
"This is the power of alliances to expand SAA's international route network through a combination of own flights and strategic code share agreements," Magwentshu added.

Besides expanding its route network to Europe, SAA will add exciting new destinations later this year to North and South America as well as to Africa.  These new route developments will grow SAA's international capacity by 8 percent. The direct flights to Munich will start from July 1, with three flights a week, he explained.

SAA will also launch destinations to Chicago (North America), from May. Customers may also soon be able to fly to a third South American destination, Rio de Janeiro, which SAA is currently looking at entering.
In Africa, SAA will launch a new destination Libreville in Gabon, and will start flying to Africa's greatest tourist draw cards, such as Kilimanjaro, to stimulate tourism into Africa.