South African Airways (SAA) has announced that it has been given the permission to lease a wide-body aircraft as well as five narrow-body aircraft - all of them Airbus equipment. This paves the way for South Africa's national carrier to relaunch international routes and increase seat capacity for its regional and domestic destinations. The aircraft will be delivered before the end of this calendar year.
According to SAA's Interim CEO, Professor John Lamola, a Request for Proposals (RFP) is currently out for four A320 narrow-body aircraft. The other two - an A330 and A320 have already been secured from the lessor community on the same terms as the ones issued in the RFP. Lamola further announced that the four aircraft that we are ordering will all be deployed by September 2023.
Derek Hanekom, who chairs the interim board of South African Airways, told Biznews in an interview (see video) that by the end of 2023, SAA is planning to operate 18 regional and domestic routes as well as two intercontinental/international routes. One of the intercontinental destinations will be São Paulo in Brazil, which will be launched probably about two months from now (05 June 2023). The other intercontinental destination will be announced by the end of October 2023. Other destinations SAA is looking at include London, Frankfurt, Perth and New York. As of now, South African Airways is flying to two domestic destinations (Johannesburg <> Cape Town and Johannesburg <> Durban) as well as to ten continental/regional destinations in Africa. The airline currently operates seven (owned or leased) aircraft.
