On Tuesday 2 September 2008, Kulula will relaunch itself as part of a strategy to expand the company’s brand appeal, online presence, and product portfolio. Their new look will be unveiled in conjunction with the company’s revenue diversification strategy, including three distinct sub-brands to support the company’s growth within the country’s travel sector.

“In the last seven years, we have earned the respect of South African consumers and business people through our efforts to introduce more accessible travel options and innovative products such as the kulula credit card,” says Gidon Novick, joint CEO of Comair (kulula.com).

“Our trusted online brand is the basis for us to offer more cost-effective products.”

As part of the comprehensive online offering, kulula.com will include three different and corresponding brands:

Kulula air will allow you to book a flight, car or hotel stay; kulula travel allows you to book all-inclusive holidays and adventure packages; and kulula connect will enable customers to order simple and cost-effective communication products and services, including mobile Internet access and cell phones.

All of the new products will offer kulula customers the chance to earn kulula moulah toward free kulula flights, linking into kulula’s jetsetter club, kululu’s complimentary and trouble-free loyalty programme.

Marketing manager for kulula, Nadine Damen, said the company’s energizing new look emphasizes the respected kulula name in a more dynamic fashion and broadens the brand’s appeal. “Each with their own distinctive colours, the new sub-brands give us more flexibility to associate kulula with a wider array of products. Our fresh new look represents kulula’s optimism, simplicity and playfulness, something that will continue to be reflected in our advertising.”

Using the kulula green as a common element, each sub-brand has its own distinctive complementary colour. Set at a 10% incline – a similar angle at which planes take-off – the new corporate identity is active and motivating, with a cleaner, simpler look.

The new brand platform for kulula was created in affiliation with the Johannesburg office of Brand Union. Anthony Swart, CEO of Brand Union, said,” As an iconic South African brand, kulula represents youthfulness and independence. In repositioning their brand, The Brand Union eagerly accepted the challenge of conveying kulula’s distinctive values, personality and somewhat irreverent culture in a refreshing manner to a number of new markets and sectors.”

Source: www.bizcommunity.com

The Academy is run by an ex SAFAir Captain and most of the staff are ex SAA pilots. The Academy is very popular with learners coming from all over South Africa and from overseas as well. The Academy is based in the town of George, which is a beautiful area on the renowned Garden Route.

The Academy has seven aircraft and all the instructors are fully qualified to SA Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) requirements.

The Private Pilots Licence (PPL) is taken on either the Cessna 152 or the Piper Tomahowk. It is an eight week course and should be completed in that time. However it may take a little longer if adverse weather conditions prevail. 45 hours is the minimum requirement to obtain your PPL. This is subject to instructor recommendations. 90% of students finish within this time frame.

Getting there is easy with frequent flights to George and a wide variety of accommodation is available.

For more information visit: www.travellersworldwide.com

South African Airways has been awarded with the “Best Airline in Africa” and “Best Cabin Crew in Africa” prizes at the World Airline Awards.

The awards based on the yearly World Airline Survey conducted by Skytrax measures over 35 different aspects of passenger satisfaction for an airline’s product and service standards, and is recognized as being a global, independent survey that handle over 15 million passengers’ feedback regarding airline standards.

SAA’s recent upgrade of the A340-300 and -600 aircraft contributed to its success at the awards. SAA now offers 29 extra titles on its in-flight movies list, ranging from popcorn blockbusters to culturally diverse options including South African and Hindi choices.

The upgraded aircraft operate SAA’s service form Washington and New York to Johannesburg and each seat on board includes a personal, on-demand entertainment system with the full range of upgraded content, as well as good quality food, complementary South African wine and amenity kits.

SAA offers the only non-stop service form the U.S. to South Africa with daily departures form Washington D.C and New York.

“Travellers in premium class enjoy 180 degree fully flat-bed seats, and in economy class enjoy the most legroom versus competitors.” SAA said in a statement earlier this week.

SAA also received the “Best Airline to Africa” award by Executive Travel Magazine and Weekly Globe Awards.

“We continue to be honoured by the fact that our customers and industry colleagues are recognizing our efforts to offer the best service to Africa,” said Marc Cavaliere, Executive Vice President, North America for South African Airways. “One can’t go wrong by working tirelessly to improve one’s service and offerings, and we continue to work to that end.”

Source: www.modernoptimist.co.za

South African Airways fired a woman who passed all the tests to be an air hostess and even learned to swim after she was diagnosed HIV-positive.

The 30-year-old has taken the airline to court, three years after being fired, in an attempt to get back the job she trained for as well as for back pay.

SAA maintains that no employee is fired for being HIV-positive, unlike the woman who claims, in paper before the Johannesburg Labour Court, that she lost her job three months after being diagnosed.

Medical tests are part of employment procedure and have to be submitted to an independent panel compromising military and private aviation experts. This panel then issues a medical certificate declaring the employee fit to fly.

The woman never got this clearance certificate and three months after she was diagnosed, the airline fired her as “she could not obtain the legally required medical certificate.”

In defense SAA said it was simply applying a legal regulation that staff had to be “medically fit”.

“SAA operates in a strictly regulated environment and we are bound by the legal safety requirements of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA),”said SAA acting group corporate affairs head Sarah Uys.

“Any crew member who is not fit for flying and ill, whether it is bronchitis or any other illness, will be grounded until such time that they have been given a medical certificate,” Uys said.

According to the woman she passed all the qualifying practical and theoretical tests required by SAA and had even learned to swim for this job.

After discovering she was HIV-positive she did not fear her job was in jeopardy. Her HIV and an autoimmune disease she contracted were both under control, she claimed in court papers.

Furthermore, SAA had punted an HIV-management programme for its staff to the trainees and she had been told that HIV was not a bar to the job.

However, 10 days after she was diagnosed, the medical panel found her temporarily unfit. Three months later, SAA fired her after the panel refused to give her a medical certificate.

“I was doing everything they asked me to. It was such an ordeal. I felt so humiliated. To be HIV-positive does not mean you are incompetent,” said the woman.

Reynaud Daniels, her lawyer, said SAA was shifting the blame to the CAA, which is also defending the action.

“It is a bit of a cop-out. If the CAA regulations are unlawful, SAA as an employer must take responsibility for it. SAA is responsible to the employee,” Daniels said.

Source: www.thetimes.co.za

The South African Consulate General in Dubai stated that there has been a 123percent increase in UAE nationals visiting South Africa in June and July 2008 compared to last year’s figures.

According to Rajendran Vellapalath, South African Airways Middle East Manager, “There has been a considerable increase in the movement of passengers traveling to South Africa from the Middle East compared to last year. The same has been reflected in the number of passengers taking South African Airways to South Africa. Due to increased demand from this part of the world, our capacity from the Middle East to South Africa has been raised by 81 per cent.”

This increase in capacity proves that South Africa is becoming more popular as a destination whether it is for business or tourism.

Flights form Dubai to Johannesburg and Cape Town is handled by Emirates, flights form Cairo to Johannesburg is handled by Egypt Air and flights from Jeddah to Johannesburg are handled by Saudi Arabian Airlines. These code-share agreements allow SAA to make all these flights possible.

Source: www.gulfnews.com

Most of Kulula.com’s flights are direct flights, except the flights from Cape Town to Durban or from Durban to Cape Town that stops in Port Elizabeth.




Kulula's Local Destinations include:

• Cape Town (to Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth)
• Durban (to Cape Town, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth)
• George (to Johannesburg)
• Johannesburg (to Cape Town, George, Port Elizabeth and Durban)
• Port Elizabeth (to Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town)

Kulula's Fleet
Kulula.com operates a fleet of Boeing 737's because they are more fuel efficient an have much more legroom. Each of Kulula's planes are uniquely painted in its own paint scheme, including the “cow plane”, the “camo plane” and the “jetsetter plane”.

Checking-in and Boarding
Check-in opens 90 minutes before the flight and closes 30 minutes before the plane takes off. Passengers need to identify themselves by bringing their driver's licence, ID Document or passport. Children are allowed to bring their birth certificate or other form of identification. A seat is assigned to passengers at check-in.
The boarding gates close 20 minutes before the plane takes off.

Children and Babies
Infants under 2 years old fly for free but they must sit on your lap for the duration of the flight and you must remember to include them in your booking. Children under 12 years of age must be accompanied by an adult and no discount fares apply for any children.

Weighing-in your Luggage
Each passenger is allowed to take one bag onboard, weighing not more than 7kg and check-in two bags, not exceeding 23kg together. Passengers will be charged R25 per kilo for any excess weight and babies under 2 years will get no baggage allowance. Any abnormal luggage such as bikes, fishing gear or surfboards form part of your 23kg baggage allowance, except for golf clubs, which entitles you to an extra 10kg weight allowance. Siemens travelers are allowed to take a maximum of 40kg, but must remember their siemens book.

• Botswana - Gaborone (Sir Seretse Khama Airport)
• Namibia - Windhoek (Hosea Kutako Airport)

South Africa

• Cape Town (Cape Town Airport) Hub
• Durban (Durban Airport)
• East London (East London Airport)
• Johannesburg (OR Tambo Airport) Hub
• Port Elizabeth (Port Elizabeth Airport)

SAA's Aircrafts
SAA's aircrafts assures their passengers of comfort, reliability, modern interiors ans technologically advanced features. In 2006 all their aircrafts, except for the A319 and B737-800 range, were fitted with lie-flat seats for even more comfort. They apply very high safety standards in maintaining their passenger aircrafts with an average age of five years.

Some of SAA's aircrafts have lie-flat seat that offers you 24 inch width in flat bed position and are made of a combination of leather and fabric. Each passenger has a personal reading light with four variable settings. While seated in comfort with enough leg rest, passengers can view the latest blockbuster movies on a llarge 10.4 inch touch screen.

South African Cargo is the airline's freight branch that operates cargo services with a Boeing 737-200F and a 737-300QC to domestic and regional destinations.

SAA's Alliance
South African Airlines has formed a strong alliance with South African Airlink and South African Express. Although these other two airlines operate independantly of SA Airways, their flights are incorporated within the alliance and they all use SAA's reservations and check-in facilities.

South African Airlink
South African Airlink Airways operates as a franchisee of South African Airways but using its own visible brand. Airlink links smaller towns to the major city hubs and was placed on the IATA Register in February 2008. They have 28 destinations in the SADC sub-region, 3500 flights per month and carries almost 1 million passengers per annum.

South African Express
In April 1994, SA Express Airways became part of the strong South African Airways Alliance and also one of the fastest growing domestic and regional airlines in Africa. They are a regional airline with route networks covering most of the major local and regional cities. The airline caters for the business and the leisure traveler by offering flights within South Africa as well as services between Botswana, Namibia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

The Upington Airport is one of South Africa’s most popular airports for air tourists who fly light aircrafts, because the weather is very stable in this area.





Tourism around Upington:
Upington is the gateway to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Augrabies National Park, the flowers of Namaqualand and the Richtersveld.

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park comprises an area of over 3,6 million hectares – one of very few conservation areas of this magnitude left in the world. The park is home to the Gemsbok, Meerkat, Black-maned Kalahari Lions, Sociable Weavers and many different species of birds of prey like the Pygmy falcon.

Flowers of Namaqualand
Namaqualand is wellknown for its annual mass display of wild flowers and a diversity of succulent plants. Numerous small plants make up an impressive field of colour. The region is host to 5000 higher plant species, about half of the world's 10000 succulent species. The region is dominated by succulents with only a little grass and very few tall shrubs or trees.

Augrabies Falls National Park
The Augrabies Falls is the greatest of South African waterfalls.The Augrabies Falls National Park is home to this spectacular waterfall and 28 000 hectares of sanctuary on the northern and southern side of the Orange River. The sanctuary has a diversity of species, from the very smallest succulents, birds and reptiles to springbok, gemsbok and the endangered black rhino.

Richtersveld National Park
Within the unique mountain desert wilderness lies the Richtersveld National Park. It consists of 160 000 hectares of land with a remarkable range of small reptiles, birds and mammals. It is home to grey rheebok, Duiker, steenbok, klipspringer, kudu, Hartman’s mountain zebra, baboon, velvet monkey, caracal and leopard. Birdlife is prolific and 650 plant species (with the world's largest diversity of succulents) can be seen in and around the park.

The town of Upington
Upington is a town in the Northern Cape Province on the banks of the Orange River. Its landscape is arid but with fertile soil because of the rich flood plains of the Orange River. That is why Upington is known for its export-quality grapes, raisins and wines.

Upington's Climate
Upington has a very stable climate with summer maximum temperatures of about 40 degrees C and winter maximum averages of about 30 degrees C.

Roads to Upington
The N14, from Springbok to Johannesburg and Pretoria is a national road through Upington. The N7 is the national road that connects Cape Town with Namibia and the N10 also passes through Upington on its way to Port Elizabeth from Namibia.

The following airlines offer domestic flights to and from Port Elizabeth: 1Time; British Airways; Kulula.com; South African Airways; South African Airlink and South African Express. No international airlines have direct flights to Port Elizabeth.





Things to See and Do in Port Elizabeth:
Port Elizabeth is located at the end of the picturisque Garden Route and is one of the country's major tourist destinations. The city is commonly known as the watersports capital of South Africa, offering visitors scuba diving, game fishing charters, kiteboarding, surfing and windsurfing opportunities. At the harbour they offer you many cruises, they include sunset cruises, dolphin viewing cruises and whale watching tours. Other places include:

The Boardwalk Waterfront Complex
The Boardwalk Casino & Entertainment World is a complete entertainment destination located in Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth. The complex includes a casino with 802 slot machines, 21 casino tables, a choice of restaurants, specialty shops, a cinema, an amphitheatre and children's entertainment facilities. The Boardwalk has 4 different hotels to choose from.

Addo Elephant Park
The Addo Elephant park, a finely tuned ecosystem is sanctuary to the Big Seven, including more than 450 elephants, Black Rhinos, lions, Cape Buffalos, leopards, southern right whales and great white sharks. It also boasts a variety of antelope species, as well as the unique flightless dung beetle. It is also a marine reserve that includes islands with breeding populations of Cape Gannets and African Penguins.

The Oceanarium
This is one of Port Elizabeth's major attractions with daily dolphin and seal shows. It also includes an underwater tank area in the aquarium and various smaller tanks of 40 different species of fish, sharks and stingrays. You can also visit the Snakepark and Tropical House nearby.

The Donkin Reserve
The reserve is a historic attraction with a National Monument, the light house, originally built in 1862. It is the best place for an overall view of the city and very popular with visitors, especially photographers.

The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum
The name of the King George VI Art Gallery has now been changed, because of it's "Colonial ties," to The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum. The Art Museum was opened on 22 June 1956 and renamed in December 2002. The collections are housed in two buildings framing the entrance to St George’s Park and consist of South African art , British art, international printmaking and Oriental art.

The city of Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth is also called Madiba Bay, the “Friendly city” and the “Windy city”. It is the provincial city of the Eastern Cape Province and is one of the major seaports in South Africa, located about 770km from Cape Town.

Port Elizabeth's climate
The city has light rain throughout the year with a subtropical climate. Summer is warm but less humid and hot than other parts of the east coast with average maximum temperatures of about 25C. Winters are cool but mild with average maximum temperatures of 20C.

Roads to Port Elizabeth
The national road to Port Elizabeth is the N2. This national road links Port Elizabeth to George, Cape Town, East London, Durban, Grahamstown and Mpumalanga. There are some regional roads that connects the city to Transkei.

Except for the OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg also have the Rand Airport near Germiston, the Grand Central Airport in Midrand and the Lanseria Airport. The Lanseria Airport is used for commercial flights to Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Botswana.

Johannesburg's Tourism Attractions
The city has many historical attractions, visited by local and foreign tourists. These attractions include:

• Johannesburg Zoo
• Townships
• Soweto
• Alexandr
• Gold Reef City
• The Market Theater
• Museum Africa
• Johannesburg Art Gallery

History Museums

• The Apartheids Museum
• The Hector Pieterson Museum

The city of Johannesburg
Johannesburg is South Africa’s largest, most advanced and wealthiest city due to the large-scale gold and diamond trade. It is also the provincial capital of Gauteng and is beginning to act as one functional city together with Pretoria, forming one Megacity with more than 10 million people.

Johannesburg's climate
Johannesburg has a dry, sunny climate with occasional downpours from October to April. The average maximum summer temperatures is about 26ºC (79ºF) and summer is their rainfall season. Winters are cool during daytime, with clear skies, and nights are cold with frost. Maximum temperatures drop to an average of about 16ºC (61ºF) in winter.

Roads to Johannesburg
Johannesburg's Ring Road is composed of three different freeways. The N3 which links Johannesburg with Durban, the N1 (the busiest national road in South Africa) which links with Pretoria and Cape Town and the N12 which links Witbank and Kimberley to Johannesburg.