Air Seychelles and South African Airways expand codeshare |08 November 2013

Air Seychelles, the national airline of Seychelles, has expanded its codeshare network with South African Airways (SAA), the national airline of the Republic of South Africa, to cover the island of Praslin and four new cities in South Africa – Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London.

The new deal will see Air Seychelles place its ‘HM’ code on 18 SAA flights per week between Johannesburg and Cape Town, Durban, and Port Elizabeth, six flights per week to each city, and five SAA flights per week between Johannesburg and East London.  

SAA in turn will place its ‘SA’ code on six Air Seychelles flights per week between Mahe and Praslin.

The airlines are also codesharing on five additional flights between Mahe and Johannesburg during the busy holiday season on December 14, 21, 28, 2013, and January 4, 11, 2013.

Cramer Ball, Air Seychelles’ chief executive, said: “Thanks to our new codeshare expansion, South Africa’s regional cities are more accessible than ever to our guests.  It is the logical next step in our cooperation, which has seen solid quarter-to-quarter traffic growth on the Johannesburg-Seychelles route since the partnership began in May.

“With the help of South African Airways, we look forward to extending awareness of our beautiful islands in these four cities, appealing to a new generation of business and leisure travellers, thereby providing revenue that will contribute to the future of our airline and our home economy.”

In subsequent phases of the partnership, the airlines will seek to cooperate on more of South African Airways’ non-stop flights throughout the continent, as well as the Americas, and to integrate their frequent flyer programmes, to earn award and status miles on each other’s airlines.

Manoj Papa, SAA general manager commercial (acting), said: “SAA has started implementing its Long-Term Turnaround Strategy, named Gaining Altitude, which among others, seeks to broaden SAA’s network through alliances and strategic partnerships. Expanding our code share agreement with Air Seychelles is in line with our strategy and offers our customers more exciting travel options.”

Tickets for the new codeshare flights and the extra flights in December and January can be purchased online at airseychelles.com or flysaa.com. Alternatively, guests can purchase tickets through travel agents, the airlines’ sales offices or by calling Air Seychelles’ call centre at +248 4 38 10 13 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +248 4 38 10 13 FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlighting or South African Airways’ call centre at +27 11 978 5313 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +27 11 978 5313 FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlighting.