SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS EXPANDS CODESHARE WITH AIR SEYCHELLES

JOHANNESBURG. 4 November 2013. South African Airways (SAA), the national airline of the Republic of South Africa, and Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, has expanded its codeshare network to cover the island of Praslin in Seychelles and four new cities in South Africa: Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London.
 
The new deal will see Air Seychelles place its ‘HM’ code on eighteen SAA flights per week between Johannesburg and Cape Town, Durban, and Port Elizabeth, and five SAA flights per week between Johannesburg and East London.  SAA in turn will place its ‘SA’ code on six Air Seychelles flights per week between Mahé and Praslin.
 
The airlines have also partnered on five additional flights between Mahé and Johannesburg on December 14, 21, 28 and January 4, 11 to cater for the busy holiday season.

Manoj Papa, SAA General Manager Commercial (Acting), said: “SAA has started implementing its Long-Term Turnaround Strategy, named Gaining Altitude, which among others, seeks to broaden SAA’s network through alliances and strategic partnerships. Expanding our code share agreement with Air Seychelles is in line with our strategy and offers our customers more exciting travel options”.

Cramer Ball, Air Seychelles’ Chief Executive Officer, said: “Thanks to our new codeshare expansion, South Africa’s regional cities are now more accessible than ever to our guests.  It is a natural next step to our partnership, which has seen solid quarter-to-quarter traffic growth since the start of our cooperation, delivering to our bottom lines.

“We look forward to working with South African Airways to enable passengers from all over South Africa to travel to Seychelles and enhancing tourism to our archipelago.”
 
In subsequent phases of their partnership, the airlines will seek to cooperate on more South African Airways’ non-stop flights throughout the continent, as well as the Americas, and to cooperate on their frequent flyer programmes.
 
Tickets for the new codeshare flights and the extra flights in December and January can be purchased online at airseychelles.com or flysaa.com. Alternatively, guests can purchase tickets through travel agents, the airlines’ sales offices or by calling Air Seychelles’ call centre at +248 4 38 10 13 or South African Airways’ call centre at +27 11 978 5313.
 
Johannesburg-Cape Town flight schedule:

Johannesburg-Durban flight schedule:

Johannesburg-Port Elizabeth flight schedule:

Johannesburg-East London flight schedule:

Mahé-Praslin flight schedule:

-ENDS-
 
 
About South African Airways
South African Airways (SAA), Africa’s most awarded airline, operates to 42 destinations worldwide.
In its domestic market SAA has an extensive schedule operating 660 flights in total per week between Johannesburg – Cape Town, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth, from its Johannesburg hub, as well as code-shared flights between Lanseria – Cape Town and Durban. SAA offers more frequencies than any other airline in South Africa.
Regionally, SAA offers 26 destinations across the African continent including Abidjan, Accra, Blantyre, Brazzaville, Bujumbura, Cotonou, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Douala, Entebbe, Harare, Kigali, Kinshasa, Lagos, Libreville, Lilongwe, Livingstone, Luanda, Lusaka, Maputo, Mauritius, Nairobi, Ndola, Pointe Noire, Victoria Falls and Windhoek.
SAA’s international network creates links to all major continents from South Africa through 11 direct routes and code shares, with daily flights from Johannesburg to London (Heathrow), Frankfurt, Munich, Mumbai, Perth, Hong Kong, Beijing, New York, Washington, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires. SAA has codes share agreements with 27 other airlines across the markets it serves. SAA’s core business is the provision of passenger airline and cargo transport services together with related services, which are provided through SAA and its four wholly owned subsidiaries: SAA Technical; Mango its low cost carrier; Air Chefs, the catering entity of SAA and South African Travel Centre (SATC).
SAA is a Star Alliance member which offers more than 21,900 daily flights to 1,328 airports in 195 countries. SAA is the winner of the 'Best Airline in Africa’ Award in the regional category for eleven consecutive years. Mango and SAA hold the number one and number two successive spots as South Africa’s most on-time airlines.

About Air Seychelles
Air Seychelles was established in 1978 and began long-haul service in 1983. The airline currently offers international flights to Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Johannesburg and Mauritius. Air Seychelles also offers more than 200 domestic scheduled flights a week throughout the archipelago, as well as domestic charter services.  As the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, Air Seychelles is a pillar of tourism, the island nation’s strongest and growing economic sector. The airline maintains a strategic partnership with Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates and 40 per cent stakeholder. For more information, please visit: www.airseychelles.com.

For more information contact:

SAA
Tlali Tlali                                                                           
SAA spokesperson                                                                                                       
Mob:     +27 82 333 3880                                                 
Email:    TlaliTlali@flysaa.com
 
Air Seychelles
Alan Renaud                                                                   Josie Michaud-Payet
General Manager Corporate Affairs                                 Manager Corporate Communications
Tel:       +248 4 39 10 32                                                 Tel:         +248 4 39 10 34
Mob:    +248 2 52 57 41                                                  Mob:     +248 2 52 59 28
Email:   arenaud@airseychelles.com                               Email:    jmpayet@airseychelles.com