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SAA and EgyptAir plan to pair up to fill gap in continent
October 29, 2009
By SLINDILE KHANYILE
SAA and EgyptAir are considering forming a joint venture company that would see them work together to reach the routes that are not well-covered in Africa.
The two airlines will meet next month to discuss how to best enhance their code sharing beyond Cairo. If an agreement is reached, SAA and EgyptAir passengers will have access to more than the 35 African destinations that the airlines currently fly to.
The possibility of establishing a new company was just an idea and no final decision had been taken, Hussein Massoud, the chief executive of EgyptAir, said on Tuesday.
Massoud was speaking on the sidelines of the Star Alliance press briefing to welcome Continental Alliance to the network in Newark Liberty International Airport.
"SAA and EgyptAir have the same interests because we are both from Africa and we belong to Star Alliance. We now want to look to see how we can co-operate to cover central Africa and other destinations daily," said Massoud.
Jason Kruse, the head of business development at SAA, said the meeting next month would be the third where the issue would be discussed.
"We will talk about Africa in the context of Star Alliance and look at how the existing carriers could work together in order to cover more of Africa. There are regions which are not covered (in) central and west Africa," said Kruse.
"There are many ways to do this. You could take your existing networks or do it on a joint-venture basis. There are a number of options but there is nothing concrete as to the model we might deploy," said Kruse.
Meanwhile, Thai Air is set to resume its direct flight to Johannesburg in April next year. Pride Boonsue, the chief executive of the airline, said the Fifa World Cup had attracted the carrier back to South Africa.
Thai Air pulled out of the country towards the end of last year due to the high oil prices and the global financial crisis, which reduced air traffic.
"We will start by doing three flights a week. But we don't only want to serve the World Cup market, we want use our code sharing with SAA to grow in South America," he said.
"There is more potential now with the connecting mix and we will benefit our Bangkok, Indonesia and Japan market."
Kruse said SAA, which flies to Brazil and Argentina, was pleased with the return of Thai Air because there was a huge demand on that route from leisure travellers.
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