SAA Downgrades JNB - LHR

[Jasondn78]

Come on SAA - Get your game face on!!

http://buyingbusinesstravel.com/news/19 ... burg-route

I can understand that the rationale must be that they are going to reduce the cost per seat per flight with less fuel burn, etc. I wonder if the route can accomodate 2x SAA B773 in place of the A332 or A346 models.

BA increasing capacity with A380 and 2x daily flights on BA to CPT with B744.

[grjplanes]

SAA have been operating A330 on the route for at least one of the daily flights for months now, and have seen several days both flights being operated by A330...this probably suggests then that both flights will be with A330?

BA capacity is actually slightly lower now, in fact now at it's lowest in a few years. From 17x 747-400 flights, now 11 x 744 + 3 x A380. Even eventually when it goes to daily A380 plus daily 744 it is still slightly lower than the 17 x 744.
With CPT getting the additional 3 x weekly 777-200 flights through Winter the total capacity is higher in Winter yes.

[evanb]

By taking out BMI, BA has done a fantastic job of turning LHR into an O&D only airport for non-BA aligned airlines. Even some historically BA aligned airlines have been pushed out of the hub model and forced to focus only on O&D traffic. Contrary to popular opinion/wisdom, O&D traffic alone is not everything, and SA has been forced to focus more on producing yield at LHR rather than volumes. While switching to the A330-200 from the A340-600 is a big drop in economy class capacity, it is a significantly smaller drop in business class capacity. So not only do they reduce the CASM but also probably increase the yield considerably.

[EDP]

If you can get a greater yield from Business, why did SAA take away First Class?

[evanb]

If you can get a greater yield from Business, why did SAA take away First Class?

Because as business class hard products have improved with things like flat beds many airlines found the demand for first class declining. Many other airlines have removed first class over the years.