South African Airways to rev up African expansion plans

By Jimoh Babatunde & Daniel Eteghe

South African Airways (SAA) would introduce new flights to Abuja in Nigeria, Madagascar, the Republic of Congo and Burundi, in its drive to rev up its African expansion plans, while also growing in South America, Asia and India.

Siza Mzimela, the chief executive of the national carrier disclosed at the airline’s annual breakfast at the just concluded 32nd Tourism Indaba in Durban, South Africa, that the continental expansion plans would not only focus on organic growth but also assisting with improvement of aviation infrastructure.

Group of women in Lagos to welcome the 1st lady, Dame Jonathan , last week invaded the Presidential wing tarmac of the Murtala Muhammed Airport..

“We are beginning to see open skies and we want to understand how this will impact on us and also the opportunities it will bring. But also important is opening up Africa for Africa that has been lacking. “The focus on the continent is important,” said Mzimela.

She stressed that SAA would not introduce all the new routes at the same time and the airline would be guided by bilateral agreements between South Africa and the various destination countries.

Nigeria was one of the key markets that SAA had identified and it had recently opened a lounge there, adding that there were other plans to improve the product offering to the West African country.

Theunis Potgieter, the General Manager for Commercial at SAA, said the carrier would offer two to three flights a week to Abuja using a smaller aircraft.

According to Mzimela, the airline would look for agreement with other airlines through the Star Alliance network to achieve its continental and global expansion.

She lamented that all the opportunities that abound in Africa are hampered by the inherent obstacles on the continent and said there was a lot that needed to be done to make the region competitive.

“We are trying to do the best we can, but bilateral (agreements) are not controlled by airlines but by countries.

“Respective governments talk to each other and there is still a lot of work to be done,” Mzimela stated.

Cheryl Carolus, the chairwoman of the SAA board, also implored governments to support the aviation industry. She said while Africa offered the greatest growth potential, it was not growing and there was a need to improve its infrastructure.

“Bilateral (agreements) is one of the tools of the trade and far too much red tape is still out there and it makes Africa uncompetitive. No airline can do its own and no country can do it on its own.”