South African Airways expands codeshare with Air Seychelles

JOHANNESBURG – South African Airways (SAA), the national airline of the Republic of South Africa, and Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, has expanded its codeshare network to cover the island of Praslin in Seychelles and four new cities in South Africa: Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London.

The new deal will see Air Seychelles place its ‘HM’ code on eighteen SAA flights per week between Johannesburg and Cape Town, Durban, and Port Elizabeth, and five SAA flights per week between Johannesburg and East London. SAA in turn will place its ‘SA’ code on six Air Seychelles flights per week between Mahé and Praslin.

The airlines have also partnered on five additional flights between Mahé and Johannesburg on December 14, 21, 28 and January 4, 11 to cater for the busy holiday season.

Manoj Papa, SAA General Manager Commercial (Acting), said: “SAA has started implementing its Long-Term Turnaround Strategy, named Gaining Altitude, which among others, seeks to broaden SAA’s network through alliances and strategic partnerships. Expanding our code share agreement with Air Seychelles is in line with our strategy and offers our customersmore exciting travel options”.

Cramer Ball, Air Seychelles’ Chief Executive Officer, said: “Thanks to our new codeshare expansion, South Africa’s regional cities are now more accessible than ever to our guests. It is a natural next step to our partnership, which has seen solid quarter-to-quarter traffic growth since the start of our cooperation, delivering to our bottom lines.

“We look forward to working with South African Airways to enable passengers from all over South Africa to travel to Seychelles and enhancing tourism to our archipelago.”

In subsequent phases of their partnership, the airlines will seek to cooperate on more South African Airways’ non-stop flights throughout the continent, as well as the Americas, and to cooperate on their frequent flyer programmes.