Air New Zealand/SAA sign code share agreement
October 27, 2009
Air New Zealand and South African Airways on Tuesday announced a code share agreement, enabling the two carriers to offer a one-stop service between Auckland and Johannesburg via Perth.
From November 1, Air New Zealand will code share on South African Airways' daily service between Perth and Johannesburg, as well as on to their connecting domestic services to Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London, SAA said.
South African Airways will in turn code share on Air New Zealand's daily Auckland-Perth service and onto connecting Air New Zealand domestic flights to Wellington and Christchurch. The group will also code share on to Air New Zealand's trans-Tasman services between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch to Sydney.
"We recognise there is an opportunity to better meet customers' needs for travel between New Zealand and South Africa," said Ed Sims, Air New Zealand group general manager for Long Haul Airline."
"With the connection at Perth and also at domestic points in both New Zealand and South Africa this new arrangement will be very popular."
For South African Airways this code share offers equal opportunities.
"Adding Air New Zealand as a code share partner will provide our customers with further access to key destinations in New Zealand and South Africa. We are looking forward to working closely with Air New Zealand as our partnership will improve the connections between our respective networks," said Jason Krause, SAA head of business development.
According to SAA, there are more than 41 000 South Africans living in New Zealand, with 23 000 short-term arrivals from South Africa for the year to June 2009.
Nearly 87 percent of those arrivals came for the purpose of visiting friends and family or a holiday. More than 12 000 New Zealand residents visited South Africa in the same period.
SAA operates direct daily services between Johannesburg and Perth with Airbus A340 aircraft. Air New Zealand operates a 223-seat Boeing 767-300 between Perth and Auckland. - I-Net Bridge
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