• Home
• /
• Aviation

South African Airways to leverage Etihad codeshare

Deal will open up 35 new destinations for African travellers.

Abu Dhabi — The UAE welcomed the inaugural daily South African Airways (SAA) flight from Johannesburg to Abu Dhabi with a lavish ceremony at the Emirates Palace on Monday.

The new service represents an expansion of the strategic partnership between SAA and Etihad Airways, which already runs daily flights from Abu Dhabi to Johannesburg.

With the new flights, SAA passengers will now have access to 35 new codeshare destinations across the GCC, Europe, Asia and Australia, while Etihad passengers will now have easier access to 17 new destinations across SAA’s African network, pending regulatory approval.

“We are delighted to welcome South African Airways to Abu Dhabi, and are confident that its new service will prove popular with the increasing number of business and leisure travellers that fly between South Africa and key markets around the world,” said Peter Baumgartner, Etihad chief commercial officer. “We are creating new value for our companies and new choice for guests as we link our networks and further deepen our commercial cooperation.”

Mpetjane Kgaogelo Lekgoro, South Africa’s Ambassador to the UAE, said he hoped the new flight will help deepen the already strong relationship between South Africa and the UAE. “It is the embassy’s role to promote political relationships and trade relationships with the UAE, and this venture marks a step in that direction,” he said.

Over 50,000 South Africans call the UAE home, and more than 200 South African companies do business in the UAE, part of the $3 billion in trade volume between the two countries. South African exports to the UAE have risen from about Dh1.56 billion in 2009 to over Dh3.3 billion in 2013. In 2012, UAE companies invested more than Dh3.6 billion in South Africa.

Ambassador Lekgoro said the new route is about more than providing economic benefits. “Political and trade relations underpin the relationship between two countries, but the most important factor is the citizens, how they come into contact and how they go through cultural exchange,” he added. “SAA and Etihad flying citizens of both countries to and fro increases the possibility of them coming together.”

In 2014, about 300,000 tourists from the Middle East visited South Africa.

— bernd@khaleejtimes.com