SAA aims for long-haul return by year-end, sets sights on aircraft order

Revamped South African Airways expects to embark on a wider fleet expansion once its strategic investor is on board, as it prepares to resume international widebody flights by year-end. SAA resumed flights in September 2021 after an 18-month grounding amid its business restructuring and the Covid crisis blocks on travel. Its initial route network has focused on regional services within Africa and it had initially been hoping to resume intercontinental flights this summer. ”The plan was to start in July, but because of the aircraft availability issues we had to push that a few months out,” SAA CE John Lamola tells FlightGlobal during an interview at the IATA AGM in Istanbul, noting the aim is to have two intercontinental routes by the end of the calendar year. SAA plans to start by relaunching flights to Perth and Sao Paulo – both destinations it served prior to the pandemic. SAA in May confirmed it had been given the green light by the South African public enterprises ministry, the airline’s owner, to lease six more Airbus aircraft. That includes an A330 widebody, which it has already secured from a lessor. “It’s been difficult for us to acquire aircraft during this time – of course in the northern hemisphere it is high season and all our lessors and aircraft providers are in the northern hemisphere,” says Lamola. ”We are now in the market for six aircraft on dry-lease… and we are battling to get them. But fortunately during this time [at the IATA AGM] we have had discussions with our alliance partners who are going to help us with the aircraft on dry-lease.” The airline has near-term plans to more than double its fleet to 26, including four widebodies, and Lamola hints it is looking at restoring its London Heathrow route once it has more long-haul capacity. <br/>