South African Airlines
About SAA
South African Airways (SAA) is South Africa’s flag carrier and largest domestic and international airline company, with hubs in Cape Town and Johannesburg. In February 1934 the South African government took over the assets and liabilities of Union Airways and named the airline South African Airways
SAA's Routes
SAA operates most of their international and intercontinental flights from Johannesburg and only two intercontinental routes from Cape Town to London and to Frankfurt. SAA also operates numerous domestic and regional routes in Southern Africa, including:
- 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.