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South African Airways (SAA), leading carrier on the African continent, which began flight services into the shores of Nigeria many years ago, clocked 80 with many feats amidst challenges, writes SADE WILLIAMS.
Founded in 1934, SAA has faced many changes over its illustrious history and has experienced many highlights and some turbulent times. Through the years, the airline and its employees have shown extraordinary resilience and capacity for change.
Today, SAA is a modern, technologically advanced airline that flies millions of people every year. It has been an award winning airline over the years and recently received, for the 12th consecutive year in a row the 4-Star airline ranking, from Skytrax, the independent, global airline rating organisation.
SAA is the leading carrier in Africa, serving 26 destinations across the continent, as well as major destinations within South Africa and internationally 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 four wholly owned subsidiaries: SAA Technical; Mango its low cost carrier; Air Chefs, the catering entity of SAA and South African Travel Centre (SATC).
It also remains the only carrier on the African continent to achieve this high level 4-Star Airline rating.
The airline’s safety record and its outstanding on-time performance remain key drivers as to why customers choose to fly with SAA.
Profitability
The airline is set for a return to profitability with its ‘Long-Term Turnaround Strategy, Gaining Altitude’, in place which sets a long-term view for returning the airline to profitability.
The strategy sets five objectives which are: Support for South Africa’s national developmental agenda; achieve and maintain commercial sustainability; Provide excellent customer service; Achieve consistent, efficient and effective operations and Foster performance excellence.
The Gaining Altitude strategy is well into its implementation phase and specific milestones have been reached.
According to SAA, loss making routes such as Bujumbura and Kigali, have been closed, with the route to Buenos Aires to be closed by end of March 2014.
In 2013 alone, the airline implemented five new code share agreements which is a considerable boost to the SAA route network without operating its own aircraft on those routes.
Rebranding after Apartheid
Between 1997 and 2005, SAA introduced its new image and livery, dropping the Springbok emblem, and the old national colours of orange, white and blue. The new livery was based upon the new national flag, with a sun motif. The airline’s name on its aircraft was changed to South African, with the Afrikaans name Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens dropped. As a symbol of the new rainbow nation, one of SAA’s 747-300s, named Ndizani (registration ZS-SAJ), was painted in bright colours. Since Ndizani was withdrawn from service, there were calls to paint another SAA aircraft in these striking colours. This special-liveried 747-300 helped transport South African Olympic athletes to Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The airline started online ticket sales and formed an alliance with SA Airlink and SA Express.
In 2000, SAA placed order for 21 next-generation Boeing 737–800s, reportedly worth $680 million. Among the 21, five CFM 56-7B27-powered examples were requested outright from Boeing, while the rest came from other parties. The order was South African’s aim to renew its fleet and phase out the likes of Airbus A300s and A320s, meaning the Boeings would be deployed on regional and domestic routes of the airline.
The B737 order was followed by yet another Airbus order in 2002. It requested Airbus to overhaul its fleet at a cost of $3.5 billion in March 2002, taking advantage of a slump in the order books of both Boeing and Airbus.
Later in 2002, SAA made a successful bid for a 49 percent stake in Air Tanzania. The move highlighted SAA’s wish to gain a foothold in the East African region. The bid was worth $20 million, and was SAA’s first acquisition of a foreign airline. The merger failed in 2006 when new SAA management felt that the arrangement was a fruitless mistake made by previous SAA managers.
A big move
In March 2004, the airline announced its application to join Star Alliance. The airline alliance accepted its application in June, with SAA joining as a full member in April 2006. SAA was the first African airline to join Star Alliance, and with its entry, the alliance’s membership was raised to 18. To celebrate the occasion, and as a condition of entry, the African airline painted an Airbus A340-600 and Boeing 737-800 in Star Alliance’s aircraft livery after the airline fulfilled 53 requirements during the joining process.
Destinations and codeshare
South African Airways flies to 37 international destinations in 26 countries in Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australasia. SAA, along with British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Korean Air, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines, is one of the few carriers to have services to all six inhabited continents. The airline has a strong presence in Southern Africa, while domestically it serves five cities.
It had also announced that it would also introduce 6 more routes in Africa including routes to Cotonou, Benin; Abuja, Nigeria; Madagascar; Republic of Congo; Cameroon and Burundi. SAA began flights to Beijing, China as part of its international route expansion.
Besides fellow Star Alliance members, SAA has codeshare agreements with the following airlines as of February 2014 : Air India; Air Mauritius; Air Seychelles; BMI; Delta Airlines and Emirates.
Others are Etihad Airways; Ethiopian Airlines; JetBlue Airways; Lufthansa and Mango as subsidiary, among others.
Fleet and travellers’ rewards
As of February 2014, SAA’s fleet consists of 55 aircraft both Boeing and Airbus and 17 on orders, all aircraft with an average age of 9 to 8 years.
Voyager is the frequent-flyer program of South African Airways. Apart from South African Airlink, South African Express Airways and Swaziland Airlink, which have an alliance with SAA, the program also partners 32 other airlines, along with many more business. Voyager consists of five tier statuses – Blue, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Lifetime Platinum. To reach a higher tier, members must fly on selected flights to allocate “Tier Miles”, in order to progress. This is different from “Base Miles”, which members can only use to win receive awards.
The SAA Voyager Programme celebrates its 20th anniversary with a mature database of well over 2.5 million members, 35 airline partners, 8 financial partners, 3 car rental partners, 7 accommodation partners, 1 property partner, 7 lifestyle partners and 2 Partners (Reach For A Dream & World Wide Fun).
Last year, SAA won On-time Performance Service Award and achieved major baggage handling improvements while its Cargo section won African Cargo Airline of the Year Award.
Monwabisi Kalawe, SAA Chief Executive Officer
Monwabisi Kalawe has been the Chief Executive Officer of South African Airways SOC Limited since June 1, 2013. Kalawe served as a Member of the Executive Board of the parent company, Compass Group PLC.
He also served as Country Managing Director of Compass Group SA for five years since 2008. He served as Chief Operating Officer of Compass Group SA. He also served as the Chief Executive Officer for Rheinmetall Denel Munition (Pty) Ltd. and Chief Operating Officer for Total Facilities Management Company (TFMC). He served as Chairman of CGSA at Supercare Services Group (Pty) Ltd. With 20 years of experience, Kalawe began his career at Eskom, before joining Nestle SA for a few years, and then returning to Eskom for three years.
Kalawe also worked at the Airports Company SA for six years. He is a member of SAIEE. He qualified as an Electrical Engineer in 1988 at the Natal University.
SAA is the winner of the ‘Best Airline in Africa’ Award in the regional category for ten consecutive years and the winner of ‘Service Excellence Africa’ for three consecutive years. Mango and SAA hold the number one and number two successive spots as South Africa’s most on – time airlines.
