Cape Town - It seems likely that we shall grow increasingly used to stopovers in the United Arab Emirates or waiting for connecting flights in its huge new airports if we book flights to Europe, India, China or some other parts of the world with SAA.
Our cash-strapped national airline expects to be able to cut its costs by 20 percent, and not to need to buy as many fuel-saving new generation aircraft as it expected, as a result of a codesharing agreement it has signed with Middle Eastern airline Etihad, which will carry its passengers to a number of destinations while SAA receives a portion of the fare.
Emirates, the oldest and still the largest Middle Eastern airline, has grown by continually adding new destinations. But Etihad – officially the national airline of the UAE because it belongs to the dominant emirate of Abu Dhabi, has achieved rapid growth in the past few years by signing codeshare agreements with an increasing number of airlines, enabling it to carry their passengers. It has greatly benefited some of the new partner airlines, particularly those in which Etihad has invested, such as Air Seychelles and Berlin Air.
In return SAA will carry Etihad passengers, mainly to destinations in Africa, which is attracting an increasing number of airlines as it becomes more prosperous, but also to São Paulo, the commercial capital of Brazil.
A few weeks ago it seemed likely that SAA might withdraw from some of its new routes in Africa if they are not yet profitable. But it seemed out of the question that it would withdraw from its route to Beijing – started only last year – because of the importance of China as a trading partner and dominant member of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) bloc even though there were suspicions that the flight was making a loss.
Now it seems possible that it might, after all, be discontinued if the codeshare arrangements are extended for Etihad to carry SAA’s passengers to Beijing from Abu Dhabi.
Several South African business people, mainly from Cape Town, have told me they still prefer to fly to Beijing with Emirates because they enjoy the stopover in Dubai and the flight on a giant Airbus A380. Capetonians, who are notoriously averse to changing flights in Johannesburg, are unlikely to fly with Etihad, which operates daily from Johannesburg but withdrew from Cape Town, where Emirates has a big market share.
It will, however, have a codeshare on SAA flights from here to Johannesburg among other South African destinations.
Fortunately we can also fly from Cape Town non-stop all year round with British Airways, KLM, Singapore Airlines and Turkish Airlines and in summer with German airline Lufthansa, Swiss airline Edelweiss, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Condor. - Weekend Argus