Schedule changes and additions

[airbusa346]

United is set to launch their second flight to Johannesburg, this time from Chicago O'Hare. Judging by the distance(8689 miles) it will dethrone San Francisco - Singapore (8440 miles) as United's longest flight.

[trees]

If this is even true. I highly doubt it will be a nonstop flight, maybe just a tag on from the existing UA187/188 service. Are there any frequencies left in the bilateral to allow additional flights?

[Joker11]

United is set to launch their second flight to Johannesburg, this time from Chicago O'Hare. Judging by the distance(8689 miles) it will dethrone San Francisco - Singapore (8440 miles) as United's longest flight.

Didn't SAA once announce that they will serve ORD and then it was quietly dropped. What ever happened to that?

[Joker11]

Lufthansa is starting MUC-JNB-MUC

Has Lufthansa served MUC-JNB-MUC before? In the artical is mentions till 2005 but I don't remember ever hearing about it.

But nice to see that another old SAA route is being taken over by another airline.

https://newsroom.lufthansagroup.com/en/ ... nnections/

LH used A343's MUC-JNB.

Never knew it was served.

[airbusa346]

United is set to launch their second flight to Johannesburg, this time from Chicago O'Hare. Judging by the distance(8689 miles) it will dethrone San Francisco - Singapore (8440 miles) as United's longest flight.

Didn't SAA once announce that they will serve ORD and then it was quietly dropped. Whatever happened to that?

Maybe Covid, they also had plans to fly to Guangzhou but that also never materialized.

[airbusa346]

https://liveandletsfly.com/united-airli ... a-chicago/

[airbusa346]

If this is even true. I highly doubt it will be a nonstop flight, maybe just a tag on from the existing UA187/188 service. Are there any frequencies left in the bilateral to allow additional flights?

No flights from Chicago yet. The news came out that it wasn't confirmed:https://liveandletsfly.com/united-airli ... a-chicago/

[evanb]

Interesting analysis on Qantas's scheduled A380 to Johannesburg from next year:

https://analyticflying.com/surprised-or ... g-in-2024/

[Joker11]

United is set to launch their second flight to Johannesburg, this time from Chicago O'Hare. Judging by the distance(8689 miles) it will dethrone San Francisco - Singapore (8440 miles) as United's longest flight.

Didn't SAA once announce that they will serve ORD and then it was quietly dropped. Whatever happened to that?

Maybe Covid, they also had plans to fly to Guangzhou but that also never materialized.

No. They had plans to service ORD in 2006 - 2007. I remember reading about it when I was still a little nerd.

[evanb]

No. They had plans to service ORD in 2006 - 2007. I remember reading about it when I was still a little nerd.

Indeed, they did. Prior to joining Star Alliance, SA had a partnership with DL. They had daily flights to JFK and ATL, and extensive connections via DL. ATL is a massive DL hub, and JFK somewhat of a smaller hub for DL (while they have a fair bit of long haul from JFK, their domestic feed is substantially smaller). ATL was dominated by connecting traffic, while JFK had stronger O&D.

When SA joined Star they switched to UA which resulted in shifting ATL to IAD. UA has two east coast hubs - EWR and IAD. Both are pretty strong, but EWR was actually a CO hub (not UA), and this reconfiguration was pre merger. SA shifted ATL to IAD, and maintained JFK which had sufficient O&D and interline to continue. At first, SA were underwhelmed by IAD, hence looking towards ORD which would give them a more competitive feed than IAD (something along the lines of ATL). However, IAD's strong O&D market (compared to ATL) settled it for them and the they dropped the idea of ORD. Instead, they supplemented with more connecting traffic via JFK with a seperate codeshare with B6.

[Joker11]

No. They had plans to service ORD in 2006 - 2007. I remember reading about it when I was still a little nerd.

Indeed, they did. Prior to joining Star Alliance, SA had a partnership with DL. They had daily flights to JFK and ATL, and extensive connections via DL. ATL is a massive DL hub, and JFK somewhat of a smaller hub for DL (while they have a fair bit of long haul from JFK, their domestic feed is substantially smaller). ATL was dominated by connecting traffic, while JFK had stronger O&D.

When SA joined Star they switched to UA which resulted in shifting ATL to IAD. UA has two east coast hubs - EWR and IAD. Both are pretty strong, but EWR was actually a CO hub (not UA), and this reconfiguration was pre merger. SA shifted ATL to IAD, and maintained JFK which had sufficient O&D and interline to continue. At first, SA were underwhelmed by IAD, hence looking towards ORD which would give them a more competitive feed than IAD (something along the lines of ATL). However, IAD's strong O&D market (compared to ATL) settled it for them and the they dropped the idea of ORD. Instead, they supplemented with more connecting traffic via JFK with a seperate codeshare with B6.

Thanks for that. You always seem to have insight knowledge that you are willing to share!

[airbusa346]

SAA will restart Perth in 2024, https://www.thesouthafrican.com/lifesty ... 1701812264

[Ned Yakman]

United is set to launch their second flight to Johannesburg, this time from Chicago O'Hare. Judging by the distance(8689 miles) it will dethrone San Francisco - Singapore (8440 miles) as United's longest flight.

Apologies, I only just saw this post a few seconds ago. I checked with UA HQ when this story initially appeared and again this week when The South African repeated it. On both occasions UA confirmed that there ARE NO PLANS to launch Chicago-Cape Town or Chicago-Joburg flights.

Besides the US carriers have already maxed-out their allocated weekly frequencies under the US-SA bilateral air services agreement. For DL to operate to CPT and for UA to launch IAD-CPT, South Africa's DoT agreed to grant a handful of supplementary frequencies to the US. Meanwhile, 3 years and 9 months after SAA's last scheduled US flight, there are no signs that the frequencies allocated to SA will be used.

[FoxTROT]

Airlink restarting flights between Durban and Bloemfontein

https://www.flyairlink.com/durban-bloemfontein-flights

[African Flyer]

https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifesty ... th-africa/

Safair starting CT - Kruger in April