Continuing to rebuild its long-haul network, South African Airways announced plans to relaunch flights between Johannesburg and Perth in April 2024.
Continue reading to learn more.
South African Airways’ Upcoming Johannesburg – Perth Route
On January 8, 2024, South African Airways announced that it will launch flights between Johannesburg and Perth on April 28, 2024. Tickets for the route are on sale now.
The flights will operate three times a week with the following schedule:
- SA280 / Johannesburg – Perth / 8:55PM – 12:20PM+1 / Tue, Thu, Sun
- SA281 / Perth – Johannesburg / 2:40PM – 7:35PM / Mon, Wed, Fri
South African Airways plans to use Airbus A340-300 aircraft with 253 seats including 38 in business class and 215 in economy class on the route.
The airline’s CEO, John Lamola, said South African Airways’ upcoming “operations to Perth are in line with the airline’s strategic plans to scale its operations to a profitable level by leveraging SAA’s unique capabilities as a national carrier with wide-body aircraft that can provide South Africa with long-haul intercontinental air connectivity.”
It’s worth noting that this is not the first time for South African Airways to operate the route – it served Perth as recently as in 2018. Announcing the relaunch of the route, Lamola said “Besides the global interconnectivity potential of this route, Perth has long been a favored destination for South African and Australian travelers, with approximately 80% of our target market being visiting family and friends.”
At this point, the only non-stop link between Australia and South Africa is six weekly flights between Sydney and Johannesburg operated by oneworld member Qantas. The Australian flag carrier also operated seasonal flights between Perth and Johannesburg in the past.
South African Airways’ Third Post-Pandemic Long-Haul Route
In the past, Star Alliance member South African Airways’ aircraft could be seen at various airports around the world including London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, and New York JFK. The airline operated a relatively large fleet of widebodies in addition to narrowbodies it used on shorter, regional flights.
Over time, however, the airline started facing financial difficulties and had to go through a bankruptcy process, from which it emerged in May 2021 according to Aviation Week. As part of the process, South African Airways’ fleet was downsized considerably with the airline returning 20 aircraft including all of its new A350-900s.
Currently, the airline is left with just three widebodies in its fleet – an A340-300 and a pair of A330-300s. The A340 only operates regional flights around Africa at this point. One of the A330s operates both regional flights, as well as to the airline’s sole long-haul destination – Sao Paulo. The other A330 appears to be parked or stored.
The airline launched two weekly flights between Cape Town and Sao Paulo on October 31, 2023, when the route became South African Airways’ first long-haul route after the restructuring and pandemic. Twice-weekly Johannesburg to Sao Paulo flights were then launched on November 6, 2023.
With that, the planned Johannesburg – Perth route will be the airline’s third long-haul route and its second long-haul destination.
South African Airways appears to be looking to capture some connecting demand between Australia and Brazil too. In the press release about the new route, it says “A Southern hemisphere travel package that goes from Perth to Sao Paulo through Johannesburg, and the way back, is now possible.”
Summary
After going through financial difficulties and scaling its operations down significantly, South African Airways is working on rebuilding its network. Late last year, it launched its first two long-haul routes post-restructuring and post-pandemic, connecting Brazil’s Sao Paulo with both Cape Town and Johannesburg twice a week.
Now, the airline is planning to return to the Johannesburg – Perth route after a few years of absence. The route will launch in April 2024 and run twice a week using the A340-300.
