Johannesburg - South African Airways (SAA) is expanding its route network in Europe, North America, South America and Africa by adding new destinations to each of these continents, the airline said on Thursday.
These new route developments will grow SAA's international capacity by 8 percent.
"SAA's network strategy is to fly to friendly international gateways, taking advantage of our Star Alliance partners hubs", said Nomfanelo Magwentshu, SAA general manager for business development.
SAA will launch a third destination into North America. After terminating services to Atlanta in June 2006, the airline will begin four flights per week between Johannesburg and Chicago from 8 May 2007, it said.
Chicago is the largest hub of SAA's Star Alliance partner United Airlines and will offer seamless connections to 91 destinations in North America on its Star partners.
SAA flights from New York to Johannesburg will also operate non-stop from May 8, saving at least six hours of flying time for those passengers currently flying via Europe, and four hours if flying on its American competition.
This decision has been taken as a result of the overwhelming success of the Washington to Johannesburg non-stop flights, started in October 2006, SAA noted.
SAA now flies daily between Johannesburg and JFK in New York via Dakar in Senegal and daily between Johannesburg and Washington.
In South America, SAA will launch new flights to Buenos Aires in July 2007 with three flights per week, as the airline's second entry point into that region.
"These flights will allow SAA to capture emerging South to South traffic flows associated with growing trade and investment between emerging economies in the Southern hemisphere, including Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, India and Malaysia," said Magwentshu.
These flights will offer good connections to seven countries in South America, including Chile, Uruguay and Peru and will complement the current operations to Sao Paulo, as part of SAA's dual gateway into South America.
Sao Paulo, which is operated daily, is one of SAA's most profitable routes.
SAA will also add three additional flights per week to Sao Paulo, bringing the total number of flights to 10 per week. These new flights will originate in Mumbai, India and operate via Johannesburg to capture the growing trade between these countries generated by the IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) forum.
SAA is also considering entering Rio de Janeiro, it said.
In Europe, SAA will launch its fifth destination, Munich, offering seamless connections to 63 destinations in Europe, including 17 destinations in Italy. Munich will be launched on 1 July 2007, with three flights per week.
Munich is a major hub of its Star Alliance partner Lufthansa.
In Africa, SAA will launch a new destination Libreville in Gabon in April 2007 three times a week, in addition to its over 20 other destinations on the African continent.
Gabon has established trade ties with Brazil, these flights will complement the additional flights to Brazil in 2007.
SAA has also improved the schedule between Johannesburg and Perth, to improve connections between African destinations and Australia.
New flights will be launched twice per week from Johannesburg to Point Noire, Congo, and Bamako in Mali in January, 2007.
Additional flights will also be operated to Frankfurt, London and Perth have been introduced during the holiday season, which allows SAA's Airbus fleet to be utilised more effectively, it said.
Flights to Livingstone in Zambia now operate daily, a fifth frequency has been added to SAA's route to India and a fourth frequency to Accra, Ghana. - I-Net Bridge