SAA increases flight capacity to meet demand in South Africa
State-owned airline, South African Airways (SAA), has moved to assure customers that it will continue to service the routes it currently offers.
This after reports suggested that the International Air Services Licencing Council revoked 20 of the airline’s domestic and international route rights.
“SAA continues to operate its current network and schedule, with six regional and three domestic destinations. Currently, the airline has deployed additional capacity on the Cape Town route to meet demand, and we have increased the aircraft size on the Harare route.
“SAA made a representation to the International Air Services Licensing Council on its current route allocation and the decision by the council to review some of the frequencies on the routes that the airline is currently not serving,” SAA said in a statement.
The aviation company added that it will be ramping up operations with additional equipment being purchased for its current fleet.
“The first addition arrived on [Tuesday]. SAA has taken delivery of an Airbus 320, which allows the airline to continue to gain momentum with the intention to resume full regional and international services.
“There is no doubt that SAA still retains a high brand equity and customer loyalty, demonstrated by successfully operating six in-demand routes on our Continent, high occupancy rates on domestic routes, and robust increase of Voyager members,” SAA said.
Earlier this month, the airline celebrated a year of operations after it faced an uncertain future after it was grounded for at least 16 months and underwent business rescue.
Lost licences
According to aviation analyst Phuthego Mojapele, the Air Services Licensing Council revoked 20 SAA licences to routes that serve domestic and international passengers after the troubled airline was unable to prove that it had sufficient personnel, facilities and equipment to service the routes.
Speaking to ENCA, Mojapele said that the airline wished to keep access to 52 routes and made representations to the council but could not sufficiently justify having 20 of the licences when the routes were not in operation.
Mojapele said the regulations around routes are straightforward – an airline needs to have flights, personnel and points of presence on the routes to keep them.
SAA could not keep planes in the sky over the routes and failed to illustrate to the council that they had a concrete plan of moving the airline forward, he said.
It is unclear which routes have specifically been revoked; however, in a recent meeting with the council, it was divulged that some of them may be of great importance, said the analyst.
Read: More trouble for ‘New’ SAA as it loses licences to important routes: report
Loading ...