We can expect significantly more nonstop service between the United States and Cape Town as of later this year, thanks to some negotiating on the part of the Department of Transportation (DOT).
Continue reading: Delta & United To Add Cape Town Flights
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Given that US carriers, I believe, are now offering 100% of the nonstop capacity between the US and S. Africa, the willingness of S. Africa to add a couple more flight authorizations for US carriers says they probably expect it to stay that way.
Delta's larger A350s give it more total seats and there is some speculation elsewhere that Delta's current daily JNB-ATL flights will stop in CPT to avoid the payload penalty; Delta's JNB-ATL flights have long been the longest flights from JNB and are complicated by the 6000 ft altitude at the airport. It is certain that the fuel burn on the A350 is so much lower that Delta is still saving alot of money compared to the 777LRs which operated the route before. Delta's A350 configuration has more seats anyway. Delta has previously said its newest A350s will have better performance out of JNB.
For their part, United has done a great job of pushing into the S. Africa market and is certain to have had data from S. African Airways passengers.
Boeing managed to do add some umph to their 787-9s to give them the ability to operate from JNB.
The loser is AA which is likely now permanently shut out of S. Africa.
This is excellent news.
United adds yet another international route. Will they need to order more 787-9’s?
Does this mean that UA will reduce EWR frequencies? Or these will be in addition to the existing EWR frequencies?
"The loser is AA which is likely not permanently shut out of S. Africa."
No, almost certainly not. Especially in an article about the US negotiating two extra frequencies it's pretty obvious that nothing about the bilateral is permanent. Is AA, assuming they even want to start flights to S. Africa (and I wish they would!), shut out for a while? Yes, probably. Permanently? Absolutely not. That's just useless AA bashing.
Sorry. I misquoted you: "The loser is AA which is likely NOW permanently shut out of S. Africa."
United will have 3x weekly IAD-CPT flights and 3x weekly EWR-CPT flights for a total of 6 weekly CPT flights
You may see it as bashing but it highlights that Delta and United have become the 2 primary US international carriers with extensive global networks while AA's strength primarily comes from Latin America and its oneworld partner hubs in other parts of the world.
AA did start service to North Africa briefly and many have highlighted that there is a large S. African community in Miami which is actually the closest continental US city to S. Africa - and SAA flew there at one time.
of course, bilaterals can change but it is a lot different to gain 2 more flights/week than to gain 7 which is what it would take for AA to enter the market with daily service.
It would still be nice if someone would offer a first class option out of IAD to SA.
United for 15 hours to CPT?
No, thank you.
American never started service to North Africa. They were supposed to start service to Casablanca, Morocco, in summer of 2020 from Philadelphia on a 757 but that didnt happen. Unless there was something else?
There are First Class options from IAD to SA. British Airways via London, Air France via Paris, Lufthansa via Frankfurt, or Emirates via Dubai. I think that's it. There are no nonstop - potential airlines in the U.S. or South Africa that even have a first class product. So if the extra travel time is worth it to you, by all means, avail yourself of that opportunity.
I know about flights via Europe; I’ve taken those for 20+ years. I’ve flown EK and LH already this year, next trip is AF.
So yes, I’m availing myself of those quite nicely.
I was referring to nonstop.
@Tim Dunn - Actually you might be surprised where the bottleneck for renegotiating the BASA came from. SA has always been keen to expand the BASA, specifically to provide authorisation for wider third country codeshares, but the US side has been refusing to negotiate anything short of a full open skies agreement - which the SA side is not able to accept due to various (unfathomable) internal policies there. So things have stagnated for a number of years, until this opportunity to get past that hurdle arose and thankfully both sides were enlightened enough to seize it.
Do you know any more details on the SA side (i.e. why they are uncomfortable with full open skies — I can get why open skies with other regional countries could hurt SAA, but given SAA's dim prospects of resuming long-haul service in the foreseeable future, I wouldn't think a US open skies agreement would hurt SA carriers)? Or do you know of any links with further reading?
There just isn't any incentive for a country to give full and complete air service rights to another country if the first country isn't offering any service at all.
When SAA was still alive, it was to prevent them from being completely overwhelmed by US carriers; now it is just not necessary to offer so much more service.
There are more than 3 flights/day between the US and S. Africa with the majority still out of JNB. The DOT might have argued that the level of air service is actually a bit lower since SAA used 747s and A340s for some of their most recent US service while UA's B787s only seat about 250 passengers and DL's seat about 310.
Have to agree with Tim on this one; SA is not going to be in AA's portfolio for a long time. They'll have to rely on BA from LHR for most service to SA which is less than ideal. But AA does have a lot of strength in Latin America and that's a bright spot for them.
@mrl - it was nothing to do with SAA. The airline actually was advocating for open skies because they were losing business to the transatlantic JVs (including their own Star Alliance partners) due to the lack of open skies. This is just one of those things that Transport have a bee in their bonnet over and simply refuse to entertain any discussion of open skies with any country.
SAA flew into FLL not MIA. I have no issue connecting with a oneworld partner airline hub, as I find the alliance has quality and reliable member airlines...flew to CPT 3 times in the last 8 months, always via DOH...was fine with me!! I think the alliance has a very good strategy. Other points agreed.
I wish American would tap into the African market. I’m flying Q Suites to JNB. Most over hyped business class product my high expectations are high.
You’re going to have to connect somewhere whether domestic or in Europe/Middle East to get to Africa.
American has plenty of connectivity with BA and QR to Africa. Houston has a large African population and that is United territory. Also the drilling and energy companies are in Houston and send workers to Africa.