South African Airways (SAA) has received approval to add six new Airbus aircraft to its fleet, including one A330 and five A320s. This growth will pave the way for the reintroduction of international routes as well as an increase in seat capacity for regional and domestic destinations. The new planes are expected to arrive before the end of 2023, and in the coming weeks, SAA will announce the relaunch of its first international route since emerging from business rescue and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Professor John Lamola, SAA’s interim CEO, stated that the new aircraft deals are based on the same competitive, transparent, and cost-effective terms that have defined the “new” SAA since its business rescue in September 2021. In addition, a Request for Proposals (RFP) for four A320 narrow-body aircraft has been issued, with the remaining two aircraft secured from the lessor community on the same terms as those issued in the RFP.
The new planes will be in service by September 2023, providing a significant boost to domestic and regional markets while also emphasising SAA’s commitment to expanding its route network and increasing frequency in the African market. Tebogo Tsimane, SAA’s acting commercial director, has stated that the A350-900 will be reintroduced into the airline’s fleet in the short and medium term to resume most of the long-haul routes that were provided prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Between October 2019 and August 2020, SAA leased four A350-900s from Hainan Airlines and Air Mauritius, each configured to seat 30 passengers in business class and 309 in economy, for a total of 28+298 (339 or 326 seats). They were primarily used for long-haul routes to JFK Airport in New York and Frankfurt Airport in Germany, but have since been returned to their owners.
In a second phase, SAA intends to use the A350s on long-haul routes to destinations such as New York-JFK, Washington-Dulles, London-Heathrow, and Frankfurt. By the end of March 2023, the airline intends to relaunch routes to Sao Paulo-Guarulhos and Perth, using an A330-300 leased from Aero Capital Solutions.
SAA has been in the red since 2011, and the company launched a rescue plan before being privatised in May 2022 for around 3 euros to the Takatso consortium. The process is still ongoing, but SAA has emerged from the rescue. SAA currently has only two aircraft capable of serving intercontinental routes: a leased A330-300 (46 seats in business class, 203 seats in economy) and an A340-300 (38+215), which serve as a substitute during maintenance operations or to supplement capacity as needed.
SAA CEO John Lamola has announced plans to more than double the leased fleet by next April, with at least one widebody aircraft, most likely an A350. SAA’s domestic network currently includes Cape Town, Durban, and Port Elizabeth, as well as Accra (Ghana), Blantyre and Lilongwe (Malawi), Harare (Zimbabwe), Kinshasa (DRC), Lusaka (Zambia), Mauritius, Maputo (Mozambique), Victoria Falls (Zambia), and Windhoek (Namibia). In addition to the two jumbo jets, SAA currently operates three A319-100s (leased from Castlelake), two A320-200s (leased from Goshawk), and three others (leased from GECAS). Prior to its bankruptcy at the end of 2019, the airline operated 44 flights.
