Is South African Airways heading back to London?

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• WaynedP says:

  20 May20 May 05:48

  Ha, empirical sophistication of commercial nouse exercised by the current lot of decision makers there would suggest Moscow.

• BJ says:

  20 May20 May 05:59

  If true, alarm bells should be ringing for anybody flying Virgin to SA, tgey’ll likely up and run..

  Realistically, the last few years have shown that Brexit Britain is not a place where you need to be.

  • Jake says:

    20 May20 May 06:44

    Sorry, I’m lost.

    How have you linked the start of a max 3-weekly new route, to that of a cancellation of a well-trodden path by a major carrier- to further link to a political event 8years ago.

    • BJ says:

      20 May20 May 07:02

      Virgin have been prone to chopping and changing their network outside the Americas. Competition on routes likely a factor.

      “That said, if South African Airways realistically wants to be seen as a global carrier again, London is where they need to be.”

      Since Brexit I don’t think there’s as much enthusiasm for London and UK as some Londoners and Brits would like to believe.

      • AJA says:

        20 May20 May 07:35

        Re the enthusiasm for the UK / London that’s your opinion but would it interest you to know that on leaving the EU the UK immediately entered the top 10 list of EU trading partners and as of March 2023 China is the most important trading partner of the European Union and accounts for about 16 percent of all EU trade in goods, followed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Russia.

        In other words little old UK is no3 in the list. I really don’t understand why people disparage the UK so much.

        https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/balance-of-trade

        • MT says:

          20 May20 May 08:31

          The fact Swizerland is number 4 maybe tells you a lot about the type of trade that makes up the numbers. The question is going forwards will the EU continue to see the UK as the place for this trade or is it linked to the fact we have only just left and as such its quite logical we would make up a large part of the EU trade? In 5 to 10 years I wonder where we will end up on this list!

          If SAA launch the route to London, with 1 aircraft I cannot see it making money, they would be much better launching it with a codeshare allience with a partner, thus if things go wrong they have options and they really need to make better use of the aircraft than is sitting on the ground all day! But if history teaches us anything, not all airlines need to be logical or make money!

        • BJ says:

          20 May20 May 08:44

          I am not, I just never thought Brexit was good for us and I still don’t. There are endless stats that can be selectively presetted and interpreted in such a way as to both support and refute this. I’m not going to dwell on them because I’m no expert in business and economics. I am not disputing the fact that the UK is a successful economy and an attractive place to do business, just that I am in no doubt that it has becone less so since 2016.

        • Lady London says:

          20 May20 May 12:45

          Does freight not make routes to the UK from RSA pay?

        • BJ says:

          20 May20 May 16:11

          @LadyLondon, might do, I have no idea.

      • Jake says:

        20 May20 May 09:24

        Okay makes more sense. From a tourism, business and air routes perspective it does seem to still have a pull.

        A lot of “flagship” routes are still headed toward London

• Curious person says:

  20 May20 May 06:00

  Where would they get the LHR slot from?

  • Rob says:

    20 May20 May 09:27

    I would imagine SAA would be legally entitled to slots under the terms of the bilateral flight agreement between the two countries.

    • KC says:

      20 May20 May 10:35

      SAA have been seasonally leasing a daily slot pair to QR since the pandemic

    • Dev says:

      20 May20 May 12:09

      Not unless the bilateral specifically allows slots to be awarded to designated carriers. Having a route authority and a slot to land/takeoff are two very separate things!

    • anon says:

      20 May20 May 13:23

      This is not how slots work!

      • Rob says:

        20 May20 May 16:08

        True on paper. In reality ACL does what that Government says, and if SAA are entitled to fly to London and need fresh slots they will get them.

        JetBlue got their Heathrow slots after intervention from the US Government.

    • pigeon says:

      20 May20 May 15:02

      Think they leased their prime slots to SQ?

      Problem is it’s hard to compete against BA’s 2xA380 plus the indirect routes when you have an A330. Expect PER and GRU instead.

• Ben says:

  20 May20 May 09:51

  BJ you could start your own airline: RemoanAir

  • Doommonger says:

    20 May20 May 10:43

    Is that the best you can do? Poor effort C-

  • Jake says:

    20 May20 May 10:45

    In fairness Nigel F said brexit was a failure the other day.

    Whether you blame it on the implementation (as he did) or the idea is still up for debate but if Nigel is saying it’s a failure then somethings gone wrong…

  • Ironside says:

    20 May20 May 12:58

    The retort is far too easy: QuitAir.

  • BJ says:

    20 May20 May 16:17

    Not saying anything the Conservative government has not already acknowledged.

• Sean M. says:

  20 May20 May 12:13

  They have said their initial planned markets are Sao Paulo and Perth. No London in the immediate plans.

• Lyn says:

  20 May20 May 19:19

  In terms of both a large diaspora, and relatively limited competition, Australia might make sense. Reintroduction of the Perth route perhaps?

• Patrick says:

  27 May27 May 21:00

  Why does the aircraft have to sit on the ground all day? Can’t they turn it around relatively quickly?

  • Rob says:

    27 May27 May 21:10

    Not easily, no. Day flights have always proved unpopular – there is a reason why the day flight from New York is called the ‘Chairman’s Flight’, because no other employee could ever get approval to ‘waste’ a working day sitting on a plane when there is an overnight alternative – and you get into issues over the operating hours of the airports.

    BA has minimised it as much as possible, but the aircraft still lands in Cape Town at 11.55am (10.25pm out of Heathrow, one of the last to leave) and still sits in Cape Town until 6.40pm (making it virtally the first arrival into Heathrow at 5.50am).

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