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SAA pain is competitors’ SPA gain

12 Feb 2020 - by Sarah Robertson
Comments | 0

PASSENGERS are choosing to

book local airlines other than SAA

for domestic connections as the

airline announced another round of

cancellation of low-load flights for the

month of February.

“While we want SAA to survive,

we can’t force passengers to book

them. Most of our clients have been

requesting Comair for their domestic

add-ons since the SAA strikes in

December,” says owner of Sure Map

Travel, Melissa Phillips.

“Booking SAA add-on sectors

is also not worth the extra manhours required to re-accommodate

passengers affected,” she says.

“We are constantly asking airlines to

assist us with more reliable add-on

options for the Durban market.”

Office manager of Sure Maritime

Travel, Carol-Anne Williams, agrees,

saying its office was booking Comair

for add-on sectors unless a client

specifically requested SAA.

“Corporate travellers cannot

afford to be inconvenienced by flight

cancellations. Our office now requires

travellers to sign an indemnity stating

they were aware that SAA was in

business rescue and may cancel

flights.”

“In order to mitigate risk to our

passengers we amended our fare

rulings at the end of last year to

remove SAA as a Special Prorate

Agreement (SPA) partner. We

now only allow domestic add-ons

with Comair,” says one airline

representative who asked to remain

anonymous.

Comair’s executive manager: sales

and distribution, Brian Kitchin,

confirmed that the airline had

seen an increase in bookings for

connecting traffic from international

airlines, some of which were up

dramatically. “We have made the

decision to add capacity on the BA

brand from March, concentrating on

Durban and Cape Town. These flights

are available for sale in the GDS from

today [February 5].”

FlySafair head of sales and 

distribution, Kirby Gordon,

says the carrier has been

approached by a number of

international carriers to sign

SPA agreements with them.

“These agreements don’t

happen overnight, but we are

in the process. We currently

have SPAs in place with KLM,

Air France and Condor with

more in the pipeline.”

Meanwhile, several

codeshare partners told TNW

the SAA flight cancellations

have had little impact on their

passengers, who have been

re-accommodated.

Michi Messner, Qantas

Airways regional manager for

Africa, says: “Our customers

have a choice to book SAA or

Comair. SAA has committed

to re-accommodating our

passengers.”

Abel Alemu, Ethiopian

Airlines regional manager

for Southern Africa, says the

airline has not received any

major complaints.

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