Argentinians urge SAA to retain flight to Buenos Aires

[Roger]

A GROUP of 15 Argentinian wholesale tourism operators has written to Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba and South African Airways (SAA) CEO Monwabisi Kalawe lobbying to keep direct flights between Buenos Aires and Johannesburg alive.

The letter, which was sent late last month, said the prospect of discontinuing direct flights between the cities was “widely mooted to happen in the very near future” and this would have a harmful effect on trade and tourism between the countries.


The value of tourists inbound to SA from Argentina was worth R413m last year, the letter said.


SAA flies three times a week to Buenos Aires and in August SA and Argentina, in a bilateral meeting, agreed that in order to boost trade between the two countries this should rise to five weekly flights between the two cities.


SAA, which is in the process of implementing a turnaround strategy that will see it cutting loss-making routes and buying new aircraft, said no decision had been taken yet.

SAA’s spokesman Tlali Tlali said the route was being reviewed under the broader programme to restore profitability. He said all of SAA’s long-haul routes were loss-making, including the Buenos Aires to Johannesburg route. “When we presented our long-term turnaround strategy in Parliament last month, we alluded to a possibility that we could cease operating on certain routes.”


SAA needed to embark on a rigorous “stakeholder engagement” to help the airline come to its final decision on what routes would have to be cut, Mr Tlali said.


“The consultation and engagements are meant to enable us to prepare adequately and to determine which of the international routes we must cease operating … communication of a final decision on whether we cease operating or not, will be made once all these nearcomplete consultations have been concluded,” he said.

The letter said: “We can but only stress this essential SAA nonstop Johannesburg-Buenos Aires flight service for passengers, cargo and mail cannot adequately be supplanted or replaced by SAA flights operating solely to the South American continent from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo, Brazil.”


In August SAA signed a code share agreement with Brazilian airline TAM to explore growing their exposure to Africa and South America respectively.


SAA signed a similar agreement with Gulf carrier Etihad Airways in May that will enable the struggling carrier to extend its network without having to invest in more aircraft.


Routing flights through Sao Paulo from Buenos Aires to Cape Town (the starting point for the majority of Argentinian tourists) will make the trip 21 hours long instead of about 15 hours, the letter said.

[globetrekker]

Why can’t Aerolíneas Argentinas operate the route?

[RCM]

Why can’t Aerolíneas Argentinas operate the route?

Umm, profitability ?