In late 2019, South African Airways (SAA) entered business rescue, as the airline had been losing money for years (and that’s not even accounting for the impacts of the pandemic). In 2020, the airline cut all flights and got rid of most of its aircraft. However, in 2021 the airline emerged from business rescue, though only as a shell of its former self.
Ever since, the airline has slowly been resuming its regional route network, with just a handful of planes. The South African flag carrier is now preparing to launch long haul flights. Will they be more sustainable this time around?
In this post:
SAA will fly from Cape Town & Johannesburg to Sao Paulo
South African Airways has announced its first intercontinental route in years, which will be launching later this year. As of late 2023, SAA will fly from both Cape Town (CPT) and Johannesburg (JNB) to Sao Paulo (GRU). The airline will operate a total of four weekly flights to Brazil.
As of October 31, 2023, SAA will fly 2x weekly from Cape Town to Sao Paulo, with the following schedule on Tuesdays and Saturdays:
SA226 Cape Town to Sao Paulo departing 12:55PM arriving 4:35PM
SA227 Sao Paulo to Cape Town departing 6:05PM arriving 6:40AM (+1 day)
The 3,953-mile route is blocked at 8hr40min westbound and 7hr35min eastbound.
As of November 7, 2023, SAA will fly 2x weekly from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo, with the following schedule on Mondays and Thursdays:
SA222 Johannesburg to Sao Paulo departing 11:20AM arriving 4:15PM
SA223 Sao Paulo to Johannesburg departing 5:45PM arriving 7:45AM (+1 day)
The 4,631-mile route is blocked at 9hr55min westbound and 9hr eastbound.
South African Airways will use an Airbus A340-300 for these routes. The airline has one of these planes, and it’s an 18-year-old jet that has been flying for SAA since 2007. The plane features 253 seats, including 38 business class seats and 215 economy class seats.
Here’s how SAA Interim CEO John Lamola describes this new route:
“We are overjoyed to announce São Paulo as our first international destination since the airline successfully emerged from an intensive Business Rescue process and Covid-19 lockdown. It also marks our return of our long-haul service out of Cape Town. The Teams at SAA are working hard behind the scenes to gear our operations for this much anticipated route launch to South America.”
“Our decision to begin the relaunch of our long-haul service with São Paulo was taken based on a rigorous analysis of the viability of the route. Sustainability has been at the heart of SAA’s approach since our restart.”
This seems like a surprisingly smart route
South African Airways faces quite an uphill battle with resuming long haul flights. The airline has a much smaller route network than before, meaning the carrier will have to rely a lot more on point-to-point traffic, rather than connecting traffic.
That being said, this seems like a smart route for the airline to launch, and shows a clear focus on profits over prestige:
- This is just about the shortest intercontinental route the airline could launch, so the economics will be a lot better than a Johannesburg to New York route, for example
- It’s nice to see SAA launching long haul flights out of Cape Town rather than just Johannesburg; I understand Johannesburg is the business center of South Africa, but there’s huge tourist demand to Cape Town, including for many premium travelers
- On service to Europe and North America, SAA faced so much competition, since you could just as easily fly a Gulf or European carrier; focusing on Southern South America is much smarter, since there’s not nearly as much competition, as you won’t fly from Sao Paulo to Dubai to Cape Town, for example
I wish SAA all the best with its resumed long haul service. I’m not sure twice weekly service in two markets with a gas guzzling plane and limited connectivity is a guaranteed recipe for success, but I’d say this is as good of a shot as the airline has.
Bottom line
The “new” South African Airways is resuming intercontinental flights, as the airline will fly from both Cape Town and Johannesburg to Sao Paulo. This is an exciting milestone for the carrier, as it will be the first long haul service since the company emerged from business rescue.
I’m curious to see how this service performs, and am impressed by the clear discipline that went into picking this route.
What do you make of SAA resuming intercontinental flights?
I would say this timing fits and connects Singapore Airlines timing on SQ478/SQ479 to/from JNB/CPT very well.
Would a CPT > Sao Paolo > Rio > JHB > CPT etc... round trip not serve all tourists better?
Heck. why not throw in Kruger park for good measure while you're at it.
In August, 1976 I flew the last SAA 707 flight from JFK to JNB, their new 747 did the return. Both flights included a stop for refueling at Cape Verde. It was also used by Aeroflot for its Havana flights. Necessity made strange bedfellows ... the 747 didn't need it, but kept stopping as an emergency resource. The travel agent assured me, "You can also fly back via South America, SAA has great connections there....
In August, 1976 I flew the last SAA 707 flight from JFK to JNB, their new 747 did the return. Both flights included a stop for refueling at Cape Verde. It was also used by Aeroflot for its Havana flights. Necessity made strange bedfellows ... the 747 didn't need it, but kept stopping as an emergency resource. The travel agent assured me, "You can also fly back via South America, SAA has great connections there. If I recall correctly they were also flying to Buenos Aires. "Kleptocracy" best describes what happened to SA, and SAA. While there's hints of a new government, Q of whether earnings will be spent on SAA.
It is interesting that SAA is getting any positive reviews given the fact that out of their 800 or so pilots, they fired ALL of their pilots (regardless of seniority and qualifications) not of color. That left them with 88 pilots to run the airline. Then, demanded that those same pilots return as first officers subordinate to those who were junior. Those who didn't return would be sanctioned by SAA AND the South African government....
It is interesting that SAA is getting any positive reviews given the fact that out of their 800 or so pilots, they fired ALL of their pilots (regardless of seniority and qualifications) not of color. That left them with 88 pilots to run the airline. Then, demanded that those same pilots return as first officers subordinate to those who were junior. Those who didn't return would be sanctioned by SAA AND the South African government. Those that were fired during the "business rescue" (bankruptcy) were stripped of their PROTECTED pensions, taxed on the pensions that they never received... Come on folks, this whole airline is a sham.
Nobody was forced to return to v2.0, and indeed a vast majority of them have chosen not to return despite v2.0 pretty much begging them to come back now.
I'm not excusing the actions of DPE during business rescue, but at the same time I acknowledge the need to be more aggressive in achieving "transformation" goals - v1.0 and SAAPA couldn't really find a solution that worked for both sides. But when the DPE...
Nobody was forced to return to v2.0, and indeed a vast majority of them have chosen not to return despite v2.0 pretty much begging them to come back now.
I'm not excusing the actions of DPE during business rescue, but at the same time I acknowledge the need to be more aggressive in achieving "transformation" goals - v1.0 and SAAPA couldn't really find a solution that worked for both sides. But when the DPE gets involved with something, the worst potential outcome can be pretty much guaranteed and so we are where we are today.
They will fail in that they do not have the business capability of running an airline.
Prior to 2020, SAA had been serving Brazil non-stop for over 50 years, and in the not too distant past (around 2016-17), they operated over 10 weekly flights between JNB and GRU. Sure, some of it was connecting traffic to other destinations they used to serve (such as PER and HKG), but there is certainly demand to South Africa from the Brazil POS (the combo Kruger + Cape Town is very popular among Brazilian tourists)....
Prior to 2020, SAA had been serving Brazil non-stop for over 50 years, and in the not too distant past (around 2016-17), they operated over 10 weekly flights between JNB and GRU. Sure, some of it was connecting traffic to other destinations they used to serve (such as PER and HKG), but there is certainly demand to South Africa from the Brazil POS (the combo Kruger + Cape Town is very popular among Brazilian tourists). So I get the rationale behind the CPT flights and I believe the market should support these 4x weekly operation
I thought they might have brought JNB-PER back first, since there is a large South African diaspora in Perth, and connections to the east coast.
That's next on their list, except another split CPT-PER and JNB-PER operation is envisaged.
Interesting. I've long thought that non-stops from CPT to Australia could work.
Where are they going to get the long-haul aircraft to service multiple new long-haul routes? Nobody in their right mind is going to lend SAA so much as bus-fare, let alone lease them multiple wide-bodies…
@Optimist - Oh, they are extremely happy to lease them aircraft with Government guarantees.
But SAA’s request for proposals for new fleet explicitly said that they would not entertain any proposals that required recourse to government guarantees. I appreciate they were totally deluded in saying that, but I’m not aware that the government is prepared to underwrite any further aircraft acquisitions (owned or leased)…
Hope they consider repaying all the airfares people lost when they ceased operations in 2018 including mine, right now I consider them nothing more than corporate crooks and will be making a lot of noise to the Australian government if they decide to return to Perth.
Jim D.
If the Antartica flight was from Johannesburg then they'd be the only airport to fly to 7 continents
This makes no sense. They don’t fly to Europe or North America, or Asia or Australasia - at least not anymore. They only have 7 aircraft left, only two of which are wide-bodies for long-haul routes. And one of these is an ancient, gas-guzzling A340
He said "only airport to fly to 7 continents" not "only airline to fly to 7 continents", obviously he's referring to JNB. is South African Airways an airport? Also, SAA never flew to Antarctica for the record.
OK, this is all getting ridiculous! This is an article about the airline (SAA), not about one of the airports it serves. I gave the original poster the benefit of the doubt that he meant “airline” when he said “airport”. Not sure it’s clear, even if he did mean airport that it would refer to JNB over CPT, which is also mentioned in the article? In any event, this article and comment thread have nothing...
OK, this is all getting ridiculous! This is an article about the airline (SAA), not about one of the airports it serves. I gave the original poster the benefit of the doubt that he meant “airline” when he said “airport”. Not sure it’s clear, even if he did mean airport that it would refer to JNB over CPT, which is also mentioned in the article? In any event, this article and comment thread have nothing even remotely to do with flights to Antarctica so the whole thing is a bizarre non sequitur… ♂️
Low IQ moment
I’d give it 6 months. I want to believe South Africa is a viable place for an international flag carrier despite its location at the southern edge of the world, just like Australia and New Zealand, but history has shown that’s really not the case.
South Africa is alive with possibility, but not with the ANC in charge. Everything they have touched, even tangentially, has failed spectacularly. Public education, public healthcare, municipalities, the Post Office, electricity generation, rail and shipping, roads, public broadcasting, and so the list goes on. Airlines are tough businesses even in the best of hands; in the ANC’s hands, SAA hasn’t a snowball’s hope in hell.
I flew with SAA four times 747 in First, to/from FRA early 2000s. I still rave about their first class service. Probably four of the best flights I’ve ever had in first, not with standing more modern seats and amenities on other airlines in the 20 years since then.
This is a pretty good decision on SAA's part. Air Canada has two daily flights to GRU, one from Montreal and one from Toronto. Our first ever *A reward flight was YVR-YYZ-GRU-JNB which incurred some substantial YQ fees, which are now dropped.
There is a big Canadian market to South Africa so Canada alone could probably fill the SAA flights provided the fares/points are reasonable. We always enjoyed SAA as the flood and beverage services...
This is a pretty good decision on SAA's part. Air Canada has two daily flights to GRU, one from Montreal and one from Toronto. Our first ever *A reward flight was YVR-YYZ-GRU-JNB which incurred some substantial YQ fees, which are now dropped.
There is a big Canadian market to South Africa so Canada alone could probably fill the SAA flights provided the fares/points are reasonable. We always enjoyed SAA as the flood and beverage services were excellent. Had some of the best Salmon ever on a JNB-HKG flight.
The A340 is dated and I do not like it's humidity controls but the route is good and as long as it is competitive it will be great.
Ben, I believe they will switch between the A343 and the A333.
Besides, let's not forget LATAM as competitor on the GRU-JNB Route and have an interline agreement with SAA's competitor Airlink. This agreement allow passengers of LATAM to acces over 40 destinations in Africa.
Airlink knows what they are doing - Rodger has a clear strategy and is agile enough to tweak it when it isn't working because quite simply if he doesn't, then he will lose everything. LATAM will provide the trunk route, but it will be the Airlink feed that pushes it over the line into the black.
Lamola on the other hand has the incredible ability to contract himself in the same sentence, let alone have...
Airlink knows what they are doing - Rodger has a clear strategy and is agile enough to tweak it when it isn't working because quite simply if he doesn't, then he will lose everything. LATAM will provide the trunk route, but it will be the Airlink feed that pushes it over the line into the black.
Lamola on the other hand has the incredible ability to contract himself in the same sentence, let alone have any sort of coherent strategy. Why would you appoint a Professor of Philosophy as the CEO of a national airline (wait, don't answer that!). His next great idea is another split operation CPT-PER and JNB-PER presumably if he can find another airworthy A340 somewhere in the garbage tip behind Airways Park - possibly even a bigger disaster in the making.
"...incredible ability to contract himself in the same sentence..."
Amazing.
Also good to know you and the Airlink CEO are on a first-name basis.
Sean M, a bit salty, eh?
Oops sorry. I meant "amazing ability to contradict himself". Talking about Lamola gets my blood pressure up! :)
And yes, Rodger and myself are on first name basis. I even moderated a discussion with him last year at AviaDev Africa in Cape Town. He's a brilliant CEO and a wonderful person too.
:)
This might be the most hare-brained idea to come out of the Lamola/TT regime at SAA, and that's saying a lot because they have had a lot of hare-brained ideas.
Let's take a clapped out old plane and fly it just twice a week from a market that has zero feed to another market that has zero feed, and where the annual O&D traffic barely touches 20k. What could go wrong with that. While at...
This might be the most hare-brained idea to come out of the Lamola/TT regime at SAA, and that's saying a lot because they have had a lot of hare-brained ideas.
Let's take a clapped out old plane and fly it just twice a week from a market that has zero feed to another market that has zero feed, and where the annual O&D traffic barely touches 20k. What could go wrong with that. While at the same time diluting the feed at our hub whose relevance we are desperately trying to restore, but where these flights won't even have connections from most of the regional network, not that twice weekly frequency would have much relevance anyway.
@ Sean,
"fly it just twice a week from a market that has zero feed to another market that has zero feed"
Where you got that?? There's a huge Brazilian comunity in SA and not to mention the SA comunity in Brazil, certainly in São Paulo.
Feed = connecting flights at each end. These are non-existent for SAA on the Sao Paulo end ever since Avianca Brasil ceased ops, and the only other route they fly from Cape Town is to Joburg itself. So the flight is entirely dependent on O&D in that market, which isn't enough to sustain the capacity they are putting into it.
Splitting the flight between Cape Town and Joburg is the assinine aspect of this. It...
Feed = connecting flights at each end. These are non-existent for SAA on the Sao Paulo end ever since Avianca Brasil ceased ops, and the only other route they fly from Cape Town is to Joburg itself. So the flight is entirely dependent on O&D in that market, which isn't enough to sustain the capacity they are putting into it.
Splitting the flight between Cape Town and Joburg is the assinine aspect of this. It handicaps both flights for no reason other than the ANC to claim that they don't totally crap over the Western Cape in an election year. I'd love to see how Derek Hanekom justifies this with his spiel about "commercial independence" and "no government interference".
Actually SAA had feed on South America's side with Gol before JNB-GRU was cut, and I'm comfident that's going to be the case again, just a matter of time. If that's able to help SAA with all the other points you made, my bet is on "no".
@Gilbert - Wouldn't it be ironic if they had better feed on the GRU end than in their "home" market.
I know little about SAA/Africa markets but I've read this blogs comments enough to come to the conclusion that @Sean seems to know more than anyone else I've seen on the internet about that market. So if he says this is dumb, its dumb.
Good news but as you say another more economical aircraft would be better suited for this new truncated version of SAA, like a 787-8 or A350-900 maybe?
There aren't many diversion airports in the South Atlantic. The great circle route goes out of ETOPS-180 range and even ETOPS-240 could constrain route selection.
Indeed, SAA v2.0 hasn't exactly had a good record with their engine reliability on their sole A330 since "restart" either.
http://www.avherald.com/h?article=4faf102b&opt=0
Although I wouldn't put it past SACAA to grant them waivers anyway.
Interestingly, every single one of the SAA "incident flights" since 2020 (plus supposedly their ill-fated peace mission to Poland/Ukraine this month) have all been commanded by the same captain, who is also their Training Manager. Maybe keep Vusi away from these...
Indeed, SAA v2.0 hasn't exactly had a good record with their engine reliability on their sole A330 since "restart" either.
http://www.avherald.com/h?article=4faf102b&opt=0
Although I wouldn't put it past SACAA to grant them waivers anyway.
Interestingly, every single one of the SAA "incident flights" since 2020 (plus supposedly their ill-fated peace mission to Poland/Ukraine this month) have all been commanded by the same captain, who is also their Training Manager. Maybe keep Vusi away from these inaugurals if you want them to go smoothly! :)
SAA 2.0, with only seven aircraft - only two of which are long-haul and one of which is a geriatric A340 - just doesn’t have the operational resilience to manage long-haul routes. You would have to be very brave to book on them. I understand that, when the government wanted the plane for their debacle in Poland, they just downgraded the Mauritius flight from an A330 to A320. All very Air Zimbabwe, sadly…
I am no apologist for SAA under the ANC, but it’s misleading to characterise a fuel contamination issue as an A330 “engine reliability” issue. As I understand it, there was nothing wrong with the engines, but there was an issue with water contamination of the jet fuel uplifted in Accra for the return flight to Johannesburg?
The issue was that they signed off the snag as cleared when it wasn't and then proceeded to take a series of unwise steps that resulted in the serious incident. That's a hit against ETOPS reliability, but since it was "just" surges rather than a shutdown they may get away with underplaying it to SACAA. Furthermore, SACAA is trying to conflate the two incidents (the contamination which is being investigated by AIB-GH, and the surges...
The issue was that they signed off the snag as cleared when it wasn't and then proceeded to take a series of unwise steps that resulted in the serious incident. That's a hit against ETOPS reliability, but since it was "just" surges rather than a shutdown they may get away with underplaying it to SACAA. Furthermore, SACAA is trying to conflate the two incidents (the contamination which is being investigated by AIB-GH, and the surges the next day AFTER THE AIRCRAFT WAS CLEARED AND RELEASED FOR FLIGHT which took place on a ZS- registered aircraft over Botswana so doesn't fall under Ghana jurisdiction) to avoid having to investigate it themselves and make findings that could hurt.
When the same captain is involved in multiple serious incidents in a short period of time (including clear violations of the CARs for not reporting the Alpha Floor within the prescribed timeframe and reportedly refusing to cooperate with the investigation), and then gets promoted to head up training for his troubles, there is a transparency issue that clearly needs to be addressed. Nothing against Vusi personally, but there are questions being asked both within the organisation and outside.
It's never just one thing, but rather death by a thousand cuts.
I agree with you that there are serious problems at both SAA and at SA’s CAA. One only has to recall how their own calibration aircraft crashed trying to calibrate instrumentation at George to know this. Also, there is no reason to believe that the CAA is any more competent or any less hollowed-out than any other agency under the ANC, sadly…
How SACAA continues to pass ICAO audits and FAA audits is a mystery to me. I've dealt with plenty of CAAs in Africa over the years and SACAA is sliding towards the bottom of that list in terms of service quality and standards.
The only business class I've flown that can compete with my recent experience on Air Europa as the world's worst...
You should try DT.
I remember when they flew a 747-300 Johannesburg-FLL-ATL. That was in the late 90s
While normally this may not be a connecting market, SAA flight was part of one of the more interesting awards I found for a friend a few years ago. Single United award ticket in business, 3 connections on 3 different continents: BOS-YYZ-GRU-JNB-VFA
That's actually a fun route including the AC connection YYZ-GRU. When I flew parts of it the connections were good and the lounge in JNB is great.