South African Airways (SAA) has had quite a few years. In late 2019, the company entered business rescue, as the airline had been losing money for years, and that’s not even accounting for the impacts of the pandemic. As part of this, the airline got rid of most of its planes, and completely discontinued long haul service. Fortunately 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 routes, starting with regional flights. In October 2023, SAA added back its first long haul route, to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The airline has now unveiled plans to launch a second long haul route.
In this post:
SAA will fly from Johannesburg to Perth
As of April 28, 2024, South African Airways will be launching 3x weekly nonstop flights between Johannesburg (JNB) and Perth (PER). The service will operate with the following schedule:
SA280 Johannesburg to Perth departing 8:55PM arriving 12:20PM (+1 day)
SA281 Perth to Johannesburg departing 2:40PM arriving 7:35PM
The 5,173-mile flight is blocked at 9hr25min eastbound and 10hr55min westbound. The eastbound service operates on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, while the westbound service operates on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. One cool aspect of this flight is that it’s one of the most southerly long haul routes in the world, as you can see below.
SAA intends to use its sole Airbus A340-300 for the route, featuring a total of 253 seats. This includes 38 business class seats and 215 economy seats. SAA refers to the A340-300 as “a marvel in the global skies,” and claims the plane is “synonymous with being spacious, comfortable, reliable, and capable of handling long-distance flights with ease.” Lol…
SAA’s logic for adding flights to Australia
For those of us not intimately familiar with the South African aviation market, it might be surprising that with SAA resuming long haul flights, Perth would be the second destination added back. So, what’s the logic for this route? It’s worth keeping in mind that the airline served this route for many years before going through business rescue, so this isn’t a totally new service.
Here’s how John Lamola, CEO of SAA, describes the logic for this route:
“Besides the global interconnectivity potential of this route, Perth has long been a favoured destination for South African and Australian travellers, with approximately 80% of our target market being visiting family and friends. The recommencement of the route provides an easier and direct passage for both leisure and business travellers, promoting trade and cultural exchange between South Africa and Australia.”
“We are committed to growing SAA into a revered leader in the global aviation sector. Perth is but one indicator of this ambition and gives us confidence that our vision of expanding our footprint to over 20 destinations this year will be realised.”
Lamola claims that adding back service to Perth is in line with SAA’s “strategic plans to scale its operations to a profitable level by leveraging SAA’s unique capabilities as a national carrier with wide body aircraft that can provide South Africa with long haul intercontinental air connectivity.”
The airline also highlights how you can now book a Southern Hemisphere travel package, traveling all the way between Perth and Sao Paulo. Honestly, that is one heck of a routing!
While SAA’s long haul route network is unconventional, there’s something to be said for the carrier’s strategy. The airline is operating in markets where it faces no competition from Gulf, European, or US carriers, which are otherwise the biggest long haul competition to South Africa.
Historically the airline has faced some challenges with both its European and US service:
- To Europe, SAA faced heavy competition from just about all the major global European airline groups, plus aircraft utilization was pretty lousy, since planes generally sat in Europe all day, operating redeye flights in both directions
- To the United States, it’s just such a long flight that it’s hard to make the economics work for a primarily leisure oriented route; SAA also flew to New York (JFK), where it had no connectivity through Star Alliance partner United
Bottom line
As of April 2024, South African Airways will launch flights between Johannesburg and Perth, representing the second long haul route operated by the airline. SAA’s two long haul routes are now both across the South Pacific, and at least have good aircraft utilization and aren’t too long.
While SAA’s long haul network might seem strange to some, there’s something to be said for focusing on routes with limited competition.
What do you make of SAA’s new Johannesburg to Perth route?
Perth is also a global mining and services hub. A large number of Perth based mining companies have operations or interests throughout Africa , so a lot of the business travel is related to this sector.
Ben, when can we expect a GRU-JNB-PER review? ;)
An A340-300? Did they pull this aircraft out of mothballs after 3 years LOL
South Pacific? Geography mate.
Quite a few years? Huh?
One-stop connectivity between Brazil, South Africa, and Australia is pretty cool. That would make for an epic trip.
Except its not actually practically possible. You have a 16 hour connecting time in one direction and 14.5 hours overnight in the other direction - plus it only connects once weekly because of the days the flights operate.
Typical Lamola fluff that is loose on reality.
As a multi-city itinerary it is pretty cool though :-)
Oz - SA for a couple days. Then on to Brazil. Woohoo!
European planes also sit in JNB all day operating night flights in both directions, except for KLM. Given that JNB is on Harare time it sits roughly in the same time zone as Europe and as such it is quite efficient to leave in the evening, have a long overnight flight, and arrive in the morning, with plenty of opportunities for connecting flights/buses/trains at both ends. As for the KLM flight it arrives in JNB...
European planes also sit in JNB all day operating night flights in both directions, except for KLM. Given that JNB is on Harare time it sits roughly in the same time zone as Europe and as such it is quite efficient to leave in the evening, have a long overnight flight, and arrive in the morning, with plenty of opportunities for connecting flights/buses/trains at both ends. As for the KLM flight it arrives in JNB around 22:00, which is less than ideal (there's not even a Gautrain connecting at that time).
Living in North America I love the KLM flight when visiting family in SA as there is only a 2-3 hour layover in Amsterdam.
Perth makes PERFECT sense for SAA.
1. It was a highly profitable route for them pre VOVID.
2. They have no competition on the route - QANTAS was going to launch PER-JNB but then got into a spat with the airport operator about which terminal they would have to use.
3. Australia has the second highest amount of South Africans living outside SA after the UK. Although Sydney has more South Africans resident in absolute...
Perth makes PERFECT sense for SAA.
1. It was a highly profitable route for them pre VOVID.
2. They have no competition on the route - QANTAS was going to launch PER-JNB but then got into a spat with the airport operator about which terminal they would have to use.
3. Australia has the second highest amount of South Africans living outside SA after the UK. Although Sydney has more South Africans resident in absolute terms, Perth has the highest proportion in relation to the population with 45k living in the city.
4. They have a codeshare arrangement with Virgin Australia which serves all other major Australian cities from Perth.
SAA had no "highly profitable" routes pre-COVID. They lost money on virtuallly every single route, but Perth was among the least loss-making ones.
Oh thanks for the clarification Sean M :-)
Ben, I'd love to see a post highlighting all the current Southern Hemisphere long haul flights across the southern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.
I think that would be a fun post and fun wanderlust.
I second that. Indulge the geeky side!
Restarting their international routes with Sao Paulo always seemed a bit strange, but Perth is on the money. As others have said, there is a large South African expat population in Perth (and indeed, an even larger southern African population) who take every opportunity they can to visit "home" or bring family over. And in general, seat capacity in and out of Perth has been constrained for several years, making it a high margin route.
There is a very large sapper community in Western Australia. That is why they are doing it.
Funny that the smallest member of the Star Alliance by fleet — smaller than even Croatia Airlines — can afford to serve PER, yet the giant Ethiopian Airlines can’t, and neither can Turkish Airlines.
PER is the only Australian destination that can be feasibly served from ADD, given the latter’s high altitude. If ET could launch PER, it would become Africa’s only six-continent airline — something that, ironically, SAA itself was in the past!
Yes - but who wants to fly from ADD to PER?
JNB to PER makes sense due to the large South African population in Perth, and the fact that both Perth and Jo'burg have economies focussed on mining and resources. So there is both leisure and business travel in the market.
I'm not sure Addis Ababa has demand for either.
It’s not all about demand: ET is the superconnector of Africa, like EK, and only ET can provide one-stop connectivity from many points across the continent to other continents. It makes perfect sense for ET to consider PER in the near future, especially as it’s well within range of the 787-9 or A350.
JNB-PER is of couse a very O&D route, and that’s why SAA is launching it with its very limited widebody fleet. But...
It’s not all about demand: ET is the superconnector of Africa, like EK, and only ET can provide one-stop connectivity from many points across the continent to other continents. It makes perfect sense for ET to consider PER in the near future, especially as it’s well within range of the 787-9 or A350.
JNB-PER is of couse a very O&D route, and that’s why SAA is launching it with its very limited widebody fleet. But ET has all the latest widebodies at its disposal, and I don’t see why ADD-PER should not be launched.
Indeed, the O&D from SA/Zim alone is sufficient to support a 3 weekly flight to "Perthfontein". And given the only connecting options are via the Middle East, SE Asia or Mauritius - none of which is particularly attractive on elapsed time basis - they will have an essential monopoly.
This route should be a slam dunk that they will have to make an effort to screw up.
There is a large community of South African immigrants in Perth, so makes total sense if you understand the demographics of the market.
"SAA’s two long haul routes are now both across the South Pacific"
Shouldn't that be "neither are across the South Pacific": one is across the South Atlantic, the other across the southern part of the Indian Ocean. Or Antarctica? Dunno what you meant. But the South Pacific doesn't seem to be involved.
I love these southern hemisphere routes (I did Buenos Aires to Auckland on ANZ back in pre-Covid days; and Qantas from Santiago to...
"SAA’s two long haul routes are now both across the South Pacific"
Shouldn't that be "neither are across the South Pacific": one is across the South Atlantic, the other across the southern part of the Indian Ocean. Or Antarctica? Dunno what you meant. But the South Pacific doesn't seem to be involved.
I love these southern hemisphere routes (I did Buenos Aires to Auckland on ANZ back in pre-Covid days; and Qantas from Santiago to Sydney), and it's nice to see them returning. Not least because it upsets all the flat earthers, who point to the absence of routes across the southern hemisphere as "proof" that the earth is not a globe -- otherwise airlines would offer such flights, rather than making you fly to the northern hemisphere and back down again (their ridiculous case is helped by Google Flights, which always tries to route you via the northern hemisphere and often pretends these southern routes don't exist).
That route is so remote. Would they be able to operate ETOPS? I know they are using a 4-engine plane but could they move to 2 engine?
At this time, SAA's ETOPS/EDTO approvals are insufficient to operate the route with an A330 so it will be operated by A340 until those approvals are re-obtained.
I can be done with 240min+ ETOPS, and the A330 as an aircraft is certified for that level and higher, though I'm not aware if SA has theirs approved for it.
....orrrr, I could've just refreshed the screen before replying. lol
Wiki (great source, I know) is showing that they have an "order" for an additional A343 for SAA.... anyone know where it's coming from?
Reactivating one of their own former airframes is the plan. TBD if it actually happens.
Chicago to sao Paolo on United then South African to joburg used to be a sweet redemption.
Any chance to book this on points now?