SAA, Emirates to expand commercial relationship

Dec 20, 2018: South African Airways (SAA) and Emirates and are expanding their commercial relationship with enhancements in their already successful codeshare agreement signed in 1997, opening up new destinations for both SAA and Emirates customers.

“This agreement marks a significant forward step in the execution of our strategy and in transforming our business.  It will enable us to explore and leverage synergies between ourselves in a much more enhanced relationship of mutual benefit. Our route network and that of Emirates complement one another. The expansion of our commercial relationship will further strengthen key focus areas of the implementation of our turnaround plan,” said SAA CEO Vuyani Jarana.

“We serve a range of cities via Dubai and across more points in Southern Africa. Increasing the scope of our agreement have seen great success with the codeshare agreement, having enabled greater connectivity to both SAA and Emirates customers, by offering more choice, flexibility and ease of connections to a wide underpins the strong bonds we share with SAA and our belief that this enhanced partnership will enable further success and gain to the airlines and their customers,” said Sir Tim Clark, president, Emirates.   

In 2017-18, the codeshare agreement between Emirates and SAA saw approximately 90,000 passengers benefit from seamless travel and greater connectivity. Emirates launched operations to South Africa in 1995 with flights between Dubai and Johannesburg. The relationship between SAA and Emirates spans over 20 years dating back to June 1997 with the signing of Emirates’ first ever codeshare agreement, whereby the SAA code started to appear on flights operated by Emirates to Dubai.

SAA is able to offer its customers seats on the eight daily flights operated by Emirates between South Africa and Dubai (four daily flights from Johannesburg including its iconic A380 aircraft, three daily flights from Cape Town and one daily flight from Durban).

The enhanced agreement means the codeshare will be expanded across both carriers’ networks.