Photo by: Duane Daws
Effective October 29, South African Airways (SAA) will reduce its daily Port Elizabeth and East London flights, along with some of its flights to Central Africa, as it continues to monitor route performance.
The State-owned airliner on Wednesday said it had made some capacity adjustments to align its schedule and frequency for sustainable and profitable outcomes as it “aggressively” implements its new five-year turnaround plan.
The number of daily flights to Port Elizabeth will be reduced from four to two, while the number of flights to East London will be reduced from three to two.
Meanwhile, regional flights under review for a potential scale-back include flights to Brazzaville, Pointe Noir and Libreville, with connections onward to Cotonou and Douala.
“SAA is evaluating options to reduce operations or down gauge aircraft type,” said SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali.
Weekly flights to Luanda, in Angola, will be reduced from seven to four, with the aircraft type down gauged, while flights to Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will be scaled back from five flights a week to four.
“Demand in Central Africa has remained at levels similar to last year owing to slow economic growth in the region. Our intention, therefore, is to maintain our presence in these markets, and we have initiated discussions with our partners to decide on the best option to serve these markets,” Tlali explained.
“SAA would like to assure customers that it will honour its obligations to all ticketed passengers who bought tickets in advance. Ticketed customers will be re-accommodated on other flights.”