South African Airways Group walks away with an armload of Skytrax awards

JOHANNESBURG. 16 June 2015. The South African Airways Group this year walked off with no less than three awards confirming the group is on the right strategic path which is showing in customer satisfaction results.
South African Airways (SAA) Acting CEO Nico Bezuidenhout this year received three awards on behalf of the SAA Group.
South African Airways was named Best Airline in Africa for the thirteen consecutive year.
Feedback from SAA’s customers also ensured that SAA walked away with the award for Best Airline Staff in Africa for the fourth time.
The awards for Best Airline Staff are special and coveted accolades, as they represent the combined quality performance of an airline’s front-line staff, across the on-board cabin staff category together with the airline’s airport staff.
Mango, SAA’s low-cost carrier, received the award for Best Low-Cost Airline in Africa.
“Receiving three customer satisfaction awards on behalf of the Group, in front of an audience of peers in the aviation industry at an auspicious event such as the Paris air show, was a most satisfying experience. These awards are dedicated to the people working at SAA and Mango who with hard work and perseverance have shown detractors that the SAA Group is going from strength to strength. Excellent Customer Service is one of the five strategic objectives of the Group’s Long-Term Turnaround Strategy, these awards confirm our efforts are paying off,” said Nico Bezuidenhout, SAA Acting CEO.
The Skytrax awards, the brainchild of an independent aviation research organisation, have become an institution on the annual events calendar. Awards for 2015 were presented at the 51th International Paris Air Show, the world's leading aviation and space industry event.
Skytrax awards are directly based on customer surveys makes them the benchmarks of airline excellence and based on a consumer satisfaction survey conducted each year by Skytrax
This auspicious event on the aviation calendar follows soon after IATA’s annual general meeting held earlier this month in Miami, North America, where the world’s top airlines gathered.
Bezuidenhout confirmed to member airlines that SAA is making good progress in its targeted turnaround and is reducing costs.
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About South African Airways (SAA)
South African Airways (SAA) is the leading carrier in Africa, serving 56 destinations, in partnership with SA Express, SA Airlink and its low cost carrier, Mango, within South Africa and across the continent, and nine intercontinental routes from its Johannesburg hub. It is a member of the largest international airline network, Star Alliance. 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 wholly owned subsidiaries: SAA Technical; Mango its low cost carrier; and Air Chefs, the catering entity of SAA. SAA is the winner of the 'Best Airline in Africa’ Award in the regional category for twelve consecutive years and the winner of
‘Service Excellence Africa’ for three years. Mango and SAA hold the number one and number two successive spots as South Africa’s most on - time airlines.

About Mango
Mango’s first flight took to the skies on 15 November 2006 following one of the largest domestic e-commerce events of the time with more than 10 000 fare queries per minute at first sale. Since then, Mango has grown its fleet of 4 Boeing 737-800 aircraft to ten and the airline now operates between South Africa’s key domestic points as well as between Johannesburg and Zanzibar.

Innovation is a cornerstone of the airline’s business and the carrier remains the only African airline to offer on-board Wi-Fi on several of its aircraft, apps for booking and payment on the go across all major mobile platforms and is the only airline globally to accept store charge cards (Edcon) as payment method. Mango was the first airline to retail flights through supermarket Shoprite Checkers.

Mango has been recognized for its Customer Service Excellence by ACSA’s Feather Awards in all stations it operates from, received 18 PRISM Awards for various aspects of its Corporate Communication and was awarded a Budgie Marketing Award for its launch campaign in 2006. In 2008 the World Travel Awards named Mango the Best Low Cost Carrier in Africa with the Skytrax World Airline Awards recognizing Mango as the Best Low Cost Airline in Africa for two successive years in 2014 and 2015.

SAA awards
South African Airways receives a number of awards annually, with other awards received for 2015:

• February: South African Airways strengthened its global position by being awarded a 4-Star rating for the thirteenth consecutive year;
• March: South African Airways Cargo wins the African Cargo Airline of the Year Award at the STAT Times International Award for Excellence in Air Cargo presented at a glittering Gala Award ceremony held at the Barnyard Theatre in Rivonia, north of Johannesburg.
• May: voted the ‘coolest’ domestic airline, at the Sunday Times Generation Next Survey Awards, where the hippest and happening brands are announced. This is the seventh year in which SAA has been voted as one of the coolest brands in South Africa;

About Skytrax
Introduced in 1999, the Skytrax World Airline Rating is the leading international Airline Rating system classifying airlines by the Quality of front-line product and staff service standards. World Airline Star Ratings are recognised as a global benchmark of airline standards, developed through many years of professional experience and Skytrax unique knowledge of the world airline industry.
The Skytrax World Airline Rating is the global airline quality ranking programme that is applied through direct and professional analysis of Quality standards.

Issued by SAA Group Corporate Affairs
For media information, please contact:
SAA Spokesperson
Tlali Tlali
Email: TlaliTlali@flysaa.com
Mobile:+27 82 333 3880
Office: +27 11 978 2298