Africa-bound Aussie travellers now have another option to fly to the continent with the return of South African Airways (SAA) to Australian shores today.
The first Johannesburg-Perth flight (SA280) is due to touch down in Perth early this afternoon (local time), with the return leg (SA281) scheduled to depart the Western Australian hub at 11.50 pm tonight and arrive in Johannesburg at 4.45 am Tuesday.
The resumed service marks the comeback of SAA in Australia, a destination the airline has not flown to since it suspended operations during the pandemic.
Utilising its A340-300, South Africa’s national carrier will provide nearly 80,000 seats per year in each direction between Perth and Johannesburg.
Flight Centre Corporate Global COO Melissa Elf said the return of SAA to Australia not only provided a sorely needed boost in capacity between the continents but was also great news for airfares.
“The rate of air capacity compared to before the pandemic has been among Australia’s lowest across all international routes, sitting at 37 per cent prior to these South African Airways flights recommencing,” she said.
“From this weekend, we’ll see that jump up to 61 per cent of pre-pandemic capacity, and we’re anticipating it to hit around 90 per cent by the end of the year.
“This is already having a positive impact on the cost of fares, which were down by 11 per cent last quarter, compared to the first quarter of 2023.
“We’re expecting to see this trend continue in the coming months as travellers see new options enter the market.”
Elf added that South Africa remained an important economic contributor to Australia, particularly in the natural resources sector as well as entertainment and education industries.
“We’ve seen an eight per cent uplift in demand from our corporate travellers moving between Australia and South Africa in the first quarter of this year, compared to the first quarter of last year,” she said.
“Almost half of that travel is related to the mining, oil, and gas sector – and we see large demand across arts, entertainment, recreation, construction and education industries.”
South African Airways’ Head of Communications Vimla Maistry said Australia is an important market for leisure and business travel to South Africa.
“Australians are a valuable source of foreign direct spend in our economy, contributing to both direct and indirect South African employment through tourism,” she remarked.
Highlighting the interest in travel to South Africa from Australia, South African Tourism recently coordinated nine simultaneous famils with 90 Australasian travel trade and media for its inaugural Mega Lekker Escape series of fam trips, culminating with a two-day training event at Sun City Resort.
