SAA is expanding its fleet and laying the groundwork for its first overseas routes.

The long-awaited development was announced on Friday, May 5, in a media release. The airline said it had been greenlighted by the Government for “a significant expansion” of its fleet.

The intention is to pave the way for the national carrier to relaunch overseas routes and to increase seat capacity for its regional and domestic destinations. Tourism Update has been told that the first overseas route will be between Johannesburg and São Paulo Guarulhos International Airport, Brazil.

Interim CEO, Professor John Lamola, said the airline’s plan to lease six new aircraft had been approved by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Public Enterprises.

“The aircraft will be delivered before the end of this calendar year, and include a wide-body aircraft as well as five narrow-body aircraft, all of them Airbus equipment,” Lamola said.

“We are excited, as SAA, to lay the groundwork for the relaunch of our first international route since coming out of business rescue and since the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will announce the new route in the coming few weeks, and we will open commercial marketing and sales for it.

“The terms and conditions attached to the deals for the new aircraft are along the same competitive, transparent, and cost-effective lines that have characterised the ‘new’ SAA since it emerged from business rescue in September 2021.

“Currently a Request for Proposals is 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,” said Lamola. He divulged that the four for which the RFPs had been issued would all be deployed by September.

He called the development a significant boost for the domestic and regional markets and underscored SAA’s commitment to expanding its route network and increasing its frequency in the African market.

In a webcast by Tourism Update’s sister publication, Travel News (during February), SAA Acting COO, Tebogo Tsimane revealed that the airline had ambitions to commence its overseas route expansion with São Paulo. The likelihood is that one A330-300 would be used on that route, and a second A330 on the second route on its bucket list, Perth.

Tsimane spoke of the carrier’s ambitions to create a third gateway to Australia – Melbourne. But that was a way down the timeline, and before that, it would like to open routes to Frankfurt, London Heathrow, New York JFK and Washington Dulles. These would require long-haul aircraft such as the Airbus A350-900s SAA had previously leased from Air Mauritius and then had to return as SAA went into business rescue.

As for adding more domestic seats, the airline has voiced the wish to add a route between Durban and Cape Town, Johannesburg and George, and Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.