National carrier, SAA has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SunExpress – a joint venture of Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines – to support its operations with four aircraft in the 2024/2025 financial year.
The MoU is an add-on to the current six-month damp lease agreement, which was started in October this year and includes the lease of two Boeing 737-800s and maintenance and cockpit crew.
The MoU was signed by SunExpress CEO Max Kownatzki and SAA CEO Prof John Lamola at a joint press event last month.
In addition to plans to increase the number of damp lease aircraft, SAA and SunExpress are currently exploring options for a multi-year reciprocal capacity support and further co-operation regarding maintenance, training, and commercial support.
"The MoU underlines our commitment to further deepen our successful partnership with SAA. We are proud of the trust SAA places in us with the renewed intention to collaborate. We strive to build on this to develop a strong, long-term partnership and leverage more opportunities together in the future,” said Kownatzki.
He added: “Over the next decade, SunExpress will more than double its fleet, reaching a 150-aircraft fleet by 2033. This kind of partnership enables us to efficiently utilise our fleet, mitigating the impact of our seasonality.”
Lamola welcomed the continued co-operation: "SunExpress has proven to be an extremely reliable partner for us in the first few months. We are therefore delighted that this valuable partnership will not only be continued but the scope of the partnership expanded to include additional aircraft for our 2024 holiday peak season. The additional aircraft will support our operations to meet the growing customer demand during peak seasons and mitigate our management of the global aircraft availability crisis.”
