Germany’s national flag carrier Lufthansa has announced that it has recently signed code-share agreements with two South African airlines. These are the still State-owned (but soon-to-be public-private partnership) South African Airways (SAA) and the private sector's Airlink.
“We are very pleased to announce our new code-share agreements with [SAA] and Airlink as these partnerships allow us to offer greater flexibility and a larger variety to our customers in the Southern African region,” affirmed Lufthansa Group Airlines Southern Africa GM sales Matthias Lefèvre. “Our customers now have the possibility of booking their entire journey on one single Lufthansa ticket and thus providing a seamless travel experience.”
The code-sharing agreement with Airlink adds a number of new destinations, across Southern Africa, to Lufthansa’s network. Within South Africa, these new destinations are Durban, East London, George and Port Elizabeth.
With SAA, Lufthansa is re-establishing a previous relationship. Lufthansa and SAA are both members of the Star Alliance grouping of airlines. Thus, Lufthansa Group passengers arriving at Johannesburg – whether on Lufthansa or SWISS International Air Lines flights – can include connecting flights to and from Cape Town and Durban in the same booking. Conversely, SAA passengers can now fly to Europe on Lufthansa or SWISS using a ticket bought through SAA.
Code-share tickets, involving connecting flights on partner airlines, are generally cheaper than buying two separate tickets. Further, these tickets allow baggage to be checked through to the final destination, creating a seamless travel experience for the passengers. The transfer of the baggage from one flight to the other is the responsibility of, and is coordinated by, the partner airlines.
The Lufthansa Group includes five passenger airlines. Apart from Lufthansa itself, these are Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and SWISS. Of these, Lufthansa and SWISS operate to South Africa. Together, they offer more than 35 flights each week between their European hubs and South Africa.