South African Airways Expands to Cotonou

South African Airways (SAA) is to further extend its network in the Continent with the introduction of flights to Cotonou, the capital of the West African republic of Benin. The airline will introduce a twice weekly connection to the city from May 17, 2012 as an extension of its Johannesburg – Pointe Noire service, a route it inaugurated on January 26 this year.

The Cotonou route will be served using an Airbus A319 and SAA has secured traffic rights to the Point Noire – Cotonou sector to support the O&D demand to and from South Africa. Cotonou is the economic capital of Benin and the country’s largest city and houses several of its government and diplomatic services.

“Adding even more new routes to our African route network demonstrates our commitment to growth on the continent. Our aim remains to continue exploring possibilities for our customers who travel between countries on the continent for business or tourism,” said Theunis Potgieter, General Manager Commercial, South African Airways.

Cotonou will be the fifth new destination on the continent that the airline has introduced since October last year: Ndola (Zambia), Kigali (Rwanda), Bujumbura (Burundi) and Pointe Noire (Congo) were the other recent additions to its route network in Africa. There are currently no direct links between Johannesburg and Cotonou, although four other airlines provide service between the Benin capital and Point Noire – Air Mali, Inter Air, Trans Air Benin and Trans Air Congo. Around 2,000 O&D passengers are estimated to have flown between South Africa and Benin last year paying average fares of more than $750 each way. Meanwhile, the O&D demand between Point Noire and Cotonou is estimated to be around 2,800 passengers per year.