SAA has been forced to
review its Johannesburg
hub model as it did not
anticipate the number
of airline competitors
bypassing JNB and flying
directly to Cape Town and
Durban, ceo Vuyani Jarana,
told Parliament’s Standing
Committee on Finance.
He made the remark
while presenting SAA’s
third quarter 2018 financial
report on March 27.
Speaking in the context of
“negative market dynamics
not anticipated”, he said
SAA’s JNB hub strategy
was under review because
of additional competitor
capacity bypassing JNB. He
said SAA had not expected
Cape Town as a market for
air travellers to reach such
critical mass and therefore
Cape Town could no longer
be ignored. “We need to
find ways of adding it to our
network plan,” he said.
Asked for a response,
Wesgro ceo, Tim Harris,
said Vuyani was “spot on
“Two and a half years ago
we launched Cape Town
Air Access, a collaborative
project to land more flights
at Cape Town International
together with Acsa, SA
Tourism, the Western Cape
Provincial Government, the
City of Cape Town and Cape
Town Tourism. In that time
we have landed 13 new
non-stop flights and helped
15 flights expand,” said
Tim. “This has happened
because of the growing
appeal of Cape Town as a
business hub for Africa, and
a tourist destination, but
also because consumers
are increasingly demanding
point-to-point flights direct to
destinations like Cape Town,
rather than via traditional
hubs like OR Tambo
International.”
In the past, SAA used to
fly direct from Cape Town to
London, Munich and Atlanta,
but over the years cancelled
all direct overseas flights in
line with its strategy to build
its Johannesburg hub.
