[LeTigre]

It would be ridiculous to think that removing a route and replacing it with larger planes on a different route is sufficient.

I just hope that the slots go to someone like Garuda or China Southern rather than BA for more Bradford flights.

[SCF]

I live in CPT and have always suspected that SAA wants to move its hub to Johannesburg for political reason. The Government nevers likes CPT and only uses old (ancient) planes on the CPT – LHR route anyway! SAA being an ANC-controlled national airline wants to alienate the non-ANC provincial government’s in Cape Town, so that it won’t benefit from the huge revenue from the rich tourism industry. SAA is bankrupt and asks and gets billions from the taxpayers per year to keep it going so that all the minsters and extended families can fly on SAA for free! Our President’s many children are all entitled to hundreds of air tickets per year, courtesy of SAA. I personally think it is a big step backward for our tourism industry, because Cape Town has been getting rave reviews as one of the best African cities! Its natural beauty and lovely wineyards plus beaches etc should encourage SAA to put more flights this way. Not cancelling it all together. Pax load has been very good despite the financial crisis and the winter off season. BA is going to cream the market and its planes are always full! Try to get a redemption ticket yourself. You’d have to book one year in advance, as I did last year for this summer’s flight to London! The only other airlines that increase flight frequency are Emirates and Ethihad, which don’t have any problem filling their planes. So SAA is stopping this route for political reason.

[SCF]

VS uses SAA code share planes in winter, which always surprises me because if I pay top dollars/pounds for an Upper Class seat, I wouldn’t want to be seated in an 80’s old Boeing disaster seat on an ancient SAA plane? But VS still flies from JNB to LHR in winter, but now all these pax are going to patronise BA.

[capetonianm]

SangFung

Most of what you write is spot on.

However :

SAA only uses old (ancient) planes on the CPT – LHR route anyway!
WRONG. They use decent modern A330.

Pax load has been very good despite the financial crisis and the winter off season.
WRONG, SAA’s loads have been poor, and worse than BA’s.

BA is going to cream the market and its planes are always full!
WRONG their planes are rarely full. You may not be able to get an FQTR because of the way they manage the revenue buckets but to say they are full is wrong.

[SCF]

The other observation is, most travellers don’t want to stopover in Johannesburg because it is notorious for theft while your bags are in transit there. The frequency and blantancy are so bad even the check in clerks ask pax not to check in their luggage if it will stay in transit for more than 2 hours! But for stopover pax they don’t have any choice. Hence the ugly glad wrap pieces are everywhere on the conveyer belt in South Africa.

[MarcusUK]

I flew SAA earlier this year CPT – JNB – LHR Business class.
It was absolute chaos!

Planes from CPT – JNB often run late. One of the BA franchises there on the day i traveled, was 11 hours late and many passengers were not re-booked on other flights as they were all full. My SAA flight was 1.5 hrs late, which cut it finely for the JNB – LHR sector.
Both planes were completely full.

You need to allow a good 2 hours for changing in JNB with domestic connections a long way from International flights, and Immigration procedures. The laborious VAT refund system means add on 30 minutes (and you pay VAT and commission to two agencies on the refund!)

Perhaps it is time for Virgin to run an all year round service?
Or perhaps they could run their flights on from JNB to CPT? The aircraft on the CPT service sits there from for 12 hrs, could easily make a return trip to JNB one way or the other?

[MURATAGDEMIR1]

Thats sad, I like SAA

[LondonBus]

Is anyone able to offer some practical advice? I am booked on this route, flying LHR – CPT on 10th August, so should be ok for that flight, returning CPT – LHR on 22nd August.

Have yet to hear anything from SAA… should I be satisfied with being re-routed via JNB, or should I be asking for a better result… i.e. BA direct flights etc?

Thoughts?

[AMcWhirter]

LondonBus – Here are EU’s passenger rights for a cancelled flight:

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=2211&pageid=12716

[greyhawkgeoff]

well now we know where the slots are going to be used – by Singapore Airlways from September 9 for their 4th daily service – I suppose a good result if you are a Star Alliance coordinator, as it avoids them falling into the hands of OneWorld or SkyTeam.

[PanzerChuks]

“The M stands for Managemunt.”??Presumably you think you are a budding comedian.Don’t give up your day job!
“Also their a/c may not be as fuel efficient as BA”.SAA use the A330-200 on the CPT-LHR route which is far more fuel efficient than the ageing 747-400 used by BA on the same route!

[PanzerChuks]

In fairness consolidation of flights in a hub is not unique to SAA.BA do similar as they have dropped international long haul frequencies from the regions e.g. Manchester used to have a few trans atlantic services.BA are losing out big time in the regions to the usual suspects Emirates,Qatar,& Etihad.Apart from LHR & Emirates LGW services,all 3 have multiple frequencies from Mancheter to their respective ME hubs,& Emirates also fly from Birmingham,Glasgow,& Newcastle! I would have thought that it might have been feasible to run the SAA LHR-CPT route at a loss if the incoming tourism benefits out weighed the incurred losses but presumably they’ve done their sums & are acting accordingly! I fly Qatar & Etihad several times between the UK & SA, exemplary service & both their fares are far more competitive than SAA.Despite the popularity of CPT as a tourist destination, it was noticeable on most of my flights that the majority of passengers disembarked at JNB & the JNB-CPT leg was virtually empty!Probably why Etihad pulled out of CPT in January.Presumably a different dynamic on the direct LHR-CPT flights?

[Bucksnet]

SAA have only recently put the new A330 on the CPT-LHR route. Until then it was the A340-200, and that’s old! It’s not as efficient as a 747-400, and if the huge cost improvement of the A330 cannot save the flight then nothing will.

[capetonianm]

PanzerChuks

“Presumably you think you are a budding comedian.Don’t give up your day job!”

Thanks for the advice. I won’t be taking it but thanks anyway. At least you got the point – maybe you’d like to throw the race card at me too?

“SAA use the A330-200 on the CPT-LHR route which is far more fuel efficient than the ageing 747-400 used by BA on the same route!”

If you take into account the cost per RPK and RTK, there is remarkably little difference on that route between the two aircraft. The difference is that BA are able to manage their inventory and sales to obtain a decent yield from the route, whilst SAA can’t. Draw your own conclusions.

[Author]

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