SAA cancelling CPT - LHR

[Espada III]

Just read that South African Airways is ceasing flights between Cape Town and London Heathrow after 35 years. Has travel between those two cities dropped so much?

[VNAVPTH]

EK have also reducing frequency. They typically take UK/SA pax via DXB to avoid uk ADP. Even they are struggling to get the yields/loads it seems.

[Tableview]

This is old news, and there was another thread on it a few weeks ago.

Demand has dropped for a number of reasons but the main problem was SAA's poor yield management. BA can make the route pay with about 10 flights a week, admittedly with more efficient equipment. SAA can't - go figure! They also lost money on JNB LON - don't know if that is still the case.

[PAXboy]

They are moving the A346 to JNB/PER which is an expanding route with far less competition. That is what they have stated

Don't forget that every European airline that goes to JNB does (or wants to) go to CPT. Then there are the Middle Eastern connections.

Further, my guess, is that the UK holiday market for ZA may have run it's course. The route has been heavily operated for 15 years and the other new folks piling in, I can see why they might want to give it up.

They are also making other changes in their global and African routes.

[Skipness One Echo]

They are moving the A346 to JNB/PER which is an expanding route with far less competition. That is what they have stated

CPT-LHR was A342 and more recently A332 operated. BA's equipment to South Africa remains the aging B744. Go figure.

[davidjohnson6]

Could recession in the UK and boom in Australia, especially in a city like Perth whose economy is based around mining have anything to do with it ?

You can make an airline as efficient as you like, but profits still depend on there being plenty of money floating around the cities in your network.

[PAXboy]

Thanks SOE, the 343 indeed. SAA have been fighting a losing battle. With no upgrade of the long haul hardware and they have steadily withdrawn from European destinations over the last decade.

The legacy Euro carriers have cut huge swathes into the lucrative JNB + CPT routes. SAA has benefitted from a lot of interline agreements to do the regionals - not jsut with Star pax. Obviously One World has local carrier Comair.

[fincastle84]

They've also lost their UK feeder with the purchase by BA of BMI. However, the real reason was that it was a cr*p product. I only flew with them once, they were worse than Virgin!

[Tableview]

They weren't a crap product, they were an extremely inconsistent product, which in a sense, I suppose, means crap.

A few weeks ago I had possibly my best ever longhaul economy flight on SAA LHR CPT. A few weeks later I had possibly the worst (Iberia excluded) on the return leg.

Years ago when I was commuting I had the worst First class flight I'd ever had, followed by the worst Business class flight, both on SA between JNB and LHR. During the same time, I had one of the best Business class flights on them and the best First.

Generally I've found them good.

[vfenext]

VNAVPTH, not sure where your info is from. Just checked the EK loads out of CPT and it's at least 85% load and still double daily. Y class frequently overbooked.

[Metro man]

There are suggestions that SAA doesn't make money on its London routes because of serious over staffing of its London office for political reasons and the number of free seats it has to give away to people connected to the government.

Basically another Air India/Kuwait Airways/Air Zimbabwe i.e. a feeding trough for politicians topped up with tax payer money. Jobs for the boys who can't be sacked, free first class travel and as many over priced contracts to supply as they can get away with.

[PAXboy]

A couple of days ago, a South Africa MP on SAA to India as part of a delegation got drunk. So drunk that he lost his Situational Awareness and tried to open the door. Always a pity that course of action fails ... providing one could limit the extraction to just the one person who open the door.

In this report 'Cope' is a political party in opposition to the ANC: Cope MP roasted over in-flight conduct - Politics | IOL News | IOL.co.za

[Tableview]

There are suggestions that SAA doesn't make money on its London routes because of serious over staffing of its London office for political reasons and the number of free seats it has to give away to people connected to the government.

Exactly what's been going on for years. Jobs for the boys.