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.
