SAA scraps direct Cape Town flights
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South African Airways (SAA) is to stop flying direct to Cape Town from 16 August.
The airline announced it is to fly to the city via Johannesburg or Tambo International Airport using larger aircraft to boost capacity by 13%. It comes as the airline shuffles its services to better serve its growing Accra, Mumbai and Perth routes.
Competition has also been tight on the route with the market between the UK and South Africa falling 24% in the last three years. It also blamed the sale of Star Alliance partner bmi, which has reduced other members’ connections from Heathrow into Europe.
“SAA is redeploying its capacity to routes experiencing expanding demand as part of our larger strategy for growth and increased efficiency within the airline,” said Theunis Potgieter, general manager commercial at SAA. “A thorough analysis of the route made it clear that we could use our aircraft more profitably elsewhere while continuing to ensure excellent business and tourism links between the Western Cape and the UK with our significant capacity via Johannesburg”.