AIR connections between
South Africa and India
are set to improve,
following the signing of a new
codeshare agreement between
SAA and Jet Airways. The
agreement will also see more
affordable fare combinations
in the market.
The new codeshare
agreement supports SAA’s
trunk route between
Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi,
and Jet Airways’ connections
from Abu Dhabi on to five
major points in India. SAA now
shares Jet Airways’ services
from Abu Dhabi to Mumbai,
Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad
and Chennai. In turn, Jet
Airways has put its code on
SAA’s flights between Abu
Dhabi and Johannesburg,
Cape Town and Durban.
Both airlines already have
codeshare agreements with
Etihad Airways in place on
routes to and from the
Abu Dhabi hub.
“With this new partnership,
SAA will be able to offer
additional daily connections to
India all via Abu Dhabi on top
of the Etihad-operated flights
on which our code is already
applied,” says Sylvain Bosc,
SAA chief commercial officer.
“This is going to multiply the
connection opportunities
available to travellers between
both countries and therefore
enable more access to
more combinations of
affordable fares.”
Sylvain admits that SAA’s
first weeks of operations via
Abu Dhabi were made difficult
by the closure of the Yemeni
airspace due to ongoing
military operations, which
made the flight time between
Johannesburg and the Middle
East longer and therefore led
to many onward connections
being missed, in particular
to India. “This constraint,
which is obviously beyond our
control, has now been lifted,”
he says.
Travel agents have criticised
the codeshare between
SAA and Etihad, saying
connections are bad and that
some airlines contracted to
carry passengers beyond Abu
Dhabi are “below par”. “On
two occasions passengers
booked with good connections,
paying higher fares, ended
up travelling from Abu Dhabi
to Phuket return, on another
airline, with old aircraft,
unfriendly crew, and bad
food. They ended up sitting
in Abu Dhabi for over eight
hours in a congested terminal
with insufficient facilities. No
compensation was offered
by Etihad,” Cape Gulf Travel’s
Yvonne Horak commented
on eTNW. “I now insist that
passengers sign an indemnity
form if they are continuing
after Abu Dhabi to the East,
as I cannot guarantee their
flights will depart as per the
scheduled times.”
Geraldine Boshoff, contract
and marketing manager
of Sure Travel, agrees that
sometimes codeshare
agreements can be a
challenge as the airline
can’t guarantee the same
service. “The challenge
already starts at check-in.
Most clients have not been
informed that they must
check-in online on the carrying
airline’s website,” she says.
