Press Releases 2008

South African Airways and Star Alliance strengthen focus on Africa

South African Airways' (SAA) is moving into the next phase of its membership of Star Alliance, with both parties focusing their efforts on furthering their combined presence on the African continent. SAA joined the Star Alliance network two years ago with warm African exuberance at the airline's headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa.

SAA and Star Alliance this week underlined their cooperation at a workshop in Johannesburg where opportunities for further enhancements were discussed. The Star Alliance member airlines endorsed these initiatives and pledged their support to drive members' traffic through SAA's major hub in Johannesburg.

"We are most pleased with our further efforts to strengthen our position in Africa and Star Alliance's support of our African strategy. SAA fully supports the drive from the alliance to further build on its presence in Africa. As SAA we see our primary role in Star Alliance as bringing customers from all over the world to Johannesburg, the financial capital of the continent, and further into the rest of Africa," said Khaya Ngqula, at a press briefing.

Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht said: “Star Alliance is proud to have SAA as our first member in Africa. Our aim is to make our alliance offerings available to many more customers in more countries in Africa. By exchanging our experience, our knowledge and our skills, we will further strengthen our partnership for the benefit of alliance airlines, their employees and their customers.’’

SAA is the only African carrier in the Star Alliance network and will be joined by EgyptAir by the end of the year. Their future joint membership status gives other international carriers in the alliance access to an extensive route network throughout Africa. A total of 11 Alliance members currently service Africa as part of their route network. SAA has the strongest presence on the continent with 19 African destinations, particularly in East and West Africa.

As part of the airline's restructuring, SAA will continue to focus on Africa and will expand its African route network to new destinations, as well as add capacity on various routes.

“Our plans for Africa are in keeping with our mandate to be an African carrier with a global reach and hence we are planning to add capacity, more flights and destinations to our African route network criss-crossing the continent,” said Ngqula.

He announced the following further developments in Africa:

• two additional flights per week to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were recently launched
• one additional flight per week to Luanda, Angola was recently launched
• from 1 March flights to Entebbe, Uganda were increased to daily
• more seats will be added to Mauritius
• more seats will be added to Livingstone in Zambia
• in the fourth quarter of the year, another popular African tourist destination will be added, following government approvals
• two additional new destinations in Africa will be launched in the next 12 months

Star Alliance and SAA will work together to develop this African strategy which will allow the airline to further entrench its position as the leading airline on the African continent, while presenting an integrated Star Alliance presence in Africa. Star Alliance members have undertaken to further concentrate on feeding traffic through Johannesburg as a key hub on the continent.

Since its membership SAA has benefited as a Star Alliance member with its customers now having access to the global route networks of Star Alliance carriers. Star Alliance allows SAA to extend its network reach beyond the points served directly to 897 destinations in 160 countries.

SAA is supported in its restructuring by Star Alliance with both parties working towards saving costs and improving efficiencies. Membership of this alliance offers SAA customers a value proposition, with the ability to leverage learning, experience and innovation across the airline members within the alliance, and to benefit through group synergies that capitalise on economies of scale and alliance bargaining power beyond the airline's own capabilities.

Current projects and activities include a common IT Platform, Frequent Flyer Programme- Earning and redeeming miles on Star Alliance carriers, fuel management, electronic ticketing, online Customer Surveys and Strategic Sourcing.

Members of SAA's Voyager loyalty programme benefit as they can now earn and use their accumulated miles on all the airlines within the alliance. Benefits that SAA derives from its membership include the Visit Southern Africa Campaign which won an award for Best Travel and Leisure Campaign: Media and Marketing Awards (Europe) 2007.

Issued jointly by SAA and Star Alliance

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