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South African Airways (SAA) proudly joins hands with all the people of Africa to celebrate Africa Day today. In being a leading player in the aviation industry in Africa by facilitating the movement of goods, services and people and enhancing cross-cultural interchanges on the continent for over 83 years, we are proud to be recognised as the Best Airline in Africa for 14 consecutive years (Skytrax).

Africa Day is the annual commemoration of the 25 May 1963 foundation of the Organisation of African Unity, which then became the African Union on 26 May 2001. This momentous occasion is celebrated in most countries on the African continent, as well as around the world. Africa Day presents an opportunity for South Africans and fellow Africans to reconnect and recommit themselves in support of all our national and continental interventions to develop a better Africa and a better world. This is even more pertinent on this day given the focus of the African Union towards achieving the objectives set out in the Agenda 2063 – which is anchored in Pan Africanism and the African renaissance with a clear mandate to promote the values of solidarity, self-belief, non-sexism, self-reliance, and celebration of our diversity. 

SAA serves 25 countries on the African continent and in celebration of Africa Day, offers customers all-inclusive special fares on a number of popular routes such as Maputo, Mauritius, Windhoek, Harare, Blantyre, Lilongwe, Livingstone and Lagos.

“We take pride in our leadership role on the continent and our Africa route network, where we serve 25 destinations across the continent takes pride of place in our network.

“As we align our route network we will be concentrating on popular routes, to ensure we keep Africans connected with the world,” says Aaron Munetsi, SAA Acting Chief Commercial Officer.

Among the African/regional destinations where SAA is seeking to align supply with growing demand resulting from the burgeoning middle-class for a regular, convenient air travel service and the favourable economic environment, destinations such as Maputo, Lusaka, Mauritius, Dar es Salaam, Entebbe, Windhoek, Harare, Victoria Falls, Nairobi, Lilongwe, Angola, Accra, Dakar, Abidjan and Blantyre hold much potential.

Maputo, Harare, Lusaka and Windhoek are conveniently served by three flights per day and quite often we schedule our wide body aircraft than the A320s on some days. The Airbus A330-200 wide body aircraft has a two class configuration offering world class business class and economy class service.

SAA undertakes a number of initiatives to ensure ease of travel on the continent:

SAA’s African routes have been scheduled for seamless connectivity into its inter-continental route network. This makes it easier for corporate travelers, regional traders, leisure travellers, those visiting friends and relatives, the diplomatic community and international organisations to plan their travel schedules.

SAA actively seeks ways of connecting Africa with the rest of the world. In August 2015 SAA introduced flights between Accra, Ghana and Washington DC in North America, with convenient onward connections to the west and east coast of the USA on SAA partners United Airlines and Jet Blue. The Accra-Washington route has since proven very popular and sustainable for SAA.

“The success of linking one of our key West African destinations with an international destination, has prompted us to seek more such connections for our customers, and we hope to be adding some to our route network in the near future,” concludes Aaron Munetsi.

SAA will continue its efforts to stimulate air travel by participating in a variety of tourism trade exhibitions in SA and other parts of the world to drive tourism and stimulate growth on the continent.

Issued by SAA