SAA has chosen a foreign global alliance partner - it will join the Star alliance within the year. However, although SAA sources confirmed the choice, none would go on record at this "early stage".
"Star has yet to agree to the decision," said an insider, although this is widely expected to be a mere formality. The move is expected to enhance the airline's network through the partners within the alliance, and will also enable it to use the buying power of the 15 member airlines.
On the downside, SAA will have to relinquish partnerships it has with carriers that are members of competing alliances, for instance Delta Airlines in the US, a member of the French alliance Sky Team.
But the pros vastly outweigh the cons. Chief among these would be access to global corporate accounts and Star's company contracts.
A spokesman for Star alliance, the biggest in the world, admitted in an interview with Business Times last year that the alliance was actively wooing SAA, not least of all because of its overwhelming presence in Africa, where Star has less influence than its competitor Sky Team. Sky Team members include KLM and Air France, both active in Africa.
SAA has for the last nine years been undecided on which alliance - if any - to join. There was a school of thought during Coleman Andrews's stewardship that it could remain unaligned and cherry-pick fruitful relationships with whichever carriers it chose.
But it has become increasingly clear that SAA would need to throw its hat in with one of the big three, including oneWorld headed by British Airways. In the last year or two, it came down to Sky Team and Star.
An SAA insider said this week that the alliance would generate huge benefits for the national carrier in terms of increased passengers, economies of scale from members' buying power, as well as improved catering and ground handling agreements, plus better and cheaper IT infrastructure.
Star, with its 15 members serving 127 countries, 680 airports and a combined fleet of 2 272 aircraft carrying 314 million passengers a year, was founded by German carrier Lufthansa, with which SAA has had a long-standing technical relationship, including a lucrative maintenance contract.
The Star spokesman, who asked not to be named, said the alliance did not dictate strategy to members or insist on conformity of service.
Among members of the Star alliance are United Airlines of the US, Thai, Singapore and Scandinavian Airlines, Air Canada and Air New Zealand.