Nationwide to get 747-300's

[beechbum]

Read with interest in the latest flight that Nationwide is to lease two 747-300's from Boeing to fly Jo'burg - Brussels. The operation is to start at the end of August. Who are going to crew these machines? Rumour has it that Belgian crew are going to man until there are sufficient SA crew trained. Is this true and can it be done? Any looks as if there is interesting times ahead.....lets see what happens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:p

[WildFrequency]

Heard the same from a Nationwide employee. Foreign crews (sound familiar BB..??) will initially crew the B747 until Nationwide has sufficient crew trained.

[C Montgomery Burns]

Considering that Sabena couldn't make JNB-BRU work (and it was the cheapest way to fly between SA and Europe after the demise of Luxavia/Terk) what makes Vernon think he can do any better? SA is a very seasonal market - it's a couple of decent months around Christmas, and the rest of the time traffic is slack. The premium traffic is tied up on BA, VS and SA - and kept there with the golden handcuffs of those airline's FFPs.

I give this one about as long as Zambian Airways!

[beechbum]

Somehow I don't think so......Luxavia/Trek's demise was courtesy of SAA and co which resulted in both Flitestar and Luxavia's closure. Sabena had not made a profit as such since the late 60's early 70's so eventually a few routes including Jo'burg had to go. I think Nationwide will do well on the route and I think traffic will come from far and wide. Remember there is a large contingent of Belgian expats who live in the DRC and surrounding areas and with Sabena grinding to a halt Nationwide will fill the void quite comfortably.
Also remember that Msrs Bricknell and co will offer decent fares to Europe. Anyway it should be interesting to watch and perhaps in the near future job opportunities for many. Let's wait and see.

[C Montgomery Burns]

A couple of corrections to your rather misleading post, beechbum:

1) Trek Airways (dba Luxavia and Flitestar) did not go bust: they were paid R98m (in 1994 money) of taxpayer's money to cease operating. The Luxembourg route made lots of money during the sanctions era because unless you wanted to pay full fare, it was the only way to go. After sanctions were lifted, fares plummetted and that, coupled with the high cost of operating the SP (especially as it was wet leased from SAA at an exorbitant cost) was too high. Gert de Klerk had similar problems with Avia a couple of years later.

2) Sure Sabena lost mucho dinero. However, if the JNB route had been profitable, they would have kept it - instead it was dumped because it was losing them so much.

3) Why would the Belgian expats fly Nationwide via JNB when they can fly shiny new SNBA (Sabena's replacement) A330s or older Hewa Bora L1011s direct from FIH to BRU? SNBA also operate to KGL, EBB, NBO and various other points - and very notably have no interest in flying to SA. Again, if SA was as viable as Vernon obviously thinks it is, why aren't SNBA looking at serving it?