At Khaya's feed back on Monday he reportedly said that first choice is A330s and B738s. I must agree that he could struggle to source those but lets wait and see.
As for ETOPS SAA needs those big twins to operate to Lagos, Accra, Luanda etc. If what evanb says is true (and I have no knowledge to challenge or doubt him) then SAA will be able to do this no proble. 60 minutes ETOPS is fine for those sectors and would enable them to build up the hours required.
A far greater benefit of these A330s or B777s would be that they release the longer range quads from this regional and domestic flying and allow them to do international flights. Plus the better economies of operating a twin on 5 and 6 hour sectors.
Khaya is also reported to have said that the reason for extra widebodies is to add on Buenos Aires to SAA's route structure and then increase frequencies to Munich and other non-daily destinations.
Last edited by FMGEC; 12th Apr 2008 at 16:55.
Reason: typo