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
