South African Airways Reveals Schedule Enhancements

South African Airways (SAA) has announced significant schedule and route enhancements to its African network, including added frequencies to several destinations, new or upgraded aircraft on certain routes, and product developments that will enhance its service levels.

The network expansion will take effect from February 25, 2012 with additional flights being introduced from Johannesburg to Lusaka, Zambia; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Accra, Ghana - Lusaka will see a further two flights a week, while Kinshasa and Accra will both see six additional rotations per week.

“These additions are part of SAA’s strategy to optimise its schedule throughout the African continent, resulting in expanded services and more convenient schedules and connections for our customers,” said Theunis Potgieter, General Manager of Commercial, South African Airways.

SAA is due to take delivery of 22 new Airbus A320 aircraft as part of its fleet renewal process and according to Potgieter the airline is in the process of optimising flight schedules for these aircraft. “These changes and enhancements will further solidify SAA’s position as the leading and most awarded airline in Africa,” he added.

According to SAA, the first Airbus A320 will enter service on the Johannesburg – Durban route from February 24, 2012, with the second aircraft joining it between the same city pairs from March 18, 2012. The arrival of the new aircraft will free capacity to enable SAA to improve the schedules of some of its regional flights and the departure and arrival times for flights between Johannesburg and Mauritius (from March 1, 2012), Nairobi (from March 18, 2012) and Accra (from March 25, 2012) will be adjusted to resulted in more convenient connection opportunities to and from SAA’s international flights.

SAA is also planning to increase capacity in some markets by replacing narrowbodied equipment with larger A330 widebodied jets. The type will be introduced on flights between Johannesburg and Harare, Zimbabwe every Friday to cater for the typically higher demand that day, while upgrades will also be implemented on certain flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town from March 18, 2012.