Time for a new one guys...

old one is here (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=600312&page=56)

The old one is still visible on the main forum page.

The old one is still visible on the main forum page.

yeah it will be until it gets pushed down the list by other newer forum posts

Oh, cool.

It seems that SA Express has started with 2 daily flights on the JNB-PLZ route as of today, with 50-seater CRJ. There was no announcement about this before. This is ofcourse together with SAA on the route still, one question though, it seems SAA now have 5 dailies on the route, has it always been 5, or did they drop 1 which SAX jumped in for.
Maybe they're planning between the two of them to hand this route over to SAX as well in the long run? JNB-ELS is slowly going that way, with most of SAA flights now with smaller A319 than 737-800, while the SAX flights is increasing from the smaller CRJ to the DH4 and CR7s.

On the IPL issues with flights from India to SA, it seems that Kingfisher is mainly going to fly a few flights just to bring in the teams, but it still needs to be finalised. Also reported that Jet Airways have received applications for charter flights...Hopefully we'll see both of them somewhere in the next 2 months!

It seems that SA Express has started with 2 daily flights on the JNB-PLZ route as of today, with 50-seater CRJ. There was no announcement about this before. This is ofcourse together with SAA on the route still, one question though, it seems SAA now have 5 dailies on the route, has it always been 5, or did they drop 1 which SAX jumped in for.
Maybe they're planning between the two of them to hand this route over to SAX as well in the long run? JNB-ELS is slowly going that way, with most of SAA flights now with smaller A319 than 737-800, while the SAX flights is increasing from the smaller CRJ to the DH4 and CR7s.


SAX did release a press release to that effect: http://www.flysax.com/south-african-express-to-begin-operating-between-johannesburg-and-port-eliz.html

On the subject of SAX, their website now shows (as a header) an image (render) of a CRJ900 in SAX colours. No official announcement to that effect yet but maybe a sign of things to come...

Have anyone got any info yet about flights for the IPL?
Kingfisher has announced they're working on packages and that teams and fans will be able to enjoy the service of Kingfisher to SA, but not really saying that they are actually flying and nowhere can I see special flights loaded.
SAA's flights also still all look the same, 4 weekly, mostly A340-200, found 2 flights in May with A340-300...most business class seats seem to be filled.

What about the teams moving around in SA, will they be using local carriers, or is Kingfisher bringing over an aircraft for that as well (A320, although capacity wise their ATR 72 should do...)?

On the subject of SAX, their website now shows (as a header) an image (render) of a CRJ900 in SAX colours

Which site is that, flysax.com? I still see a 737...that doesn't and wouldn't soon have anything to do with them permanently, although they do use a 737-200 now and then when some of their aircraft gets worked on.

But the rumours were going around last year, of both more Q400s and then CRJ900s, that's why the 2 CRJ700 isn't fully painted. Hope it's still true!

Have anyone got any info yet about flights for the IPL?
Kingfisher has announced they're working on packages and that teams and fans will be able to enjoy the service of Kingfisher to SA, but not really saying that they are actually flying and nowhere can I see special flights loaded.
SAA's flights also still all look the same, 4 weekly, mostly A340-200, found 2 flights in May with A340-300...most business class seats seem to be filled.

What about the teams moving around in SA, will they be using local carriers, or is Kingfisher bringing over an aircraft for that as well (A320, although capacity wise their ATR 72 should do...)?

ive also checked and cant see any flights loaded. the only long haul aircraft that kingfisher operate is the A330-200.

From Business Day :

South Africa: Lanseria International Said to Be for Sale

Julius Baumann

Johannesburg —
LANSERIA International, SA's largest privately owned airport, is believed to be up for sale, possibly to a foreign group of investors.

While rumours of its imminent sale have circulated for years, speculation reached fever pitch this year with businesses operating from the airport being approached by potential buyers in the past few weeks to sound out their plans at the airport.

A spokesman for the airport, who did not want to be named, said this week that the airport had not been sold, but did not rule out a sale in future.

"I can categorically state that the airport has not been sold. We have had discussions in the past with various groups and are currently in talks with various other parties."

Stephen Carlin, a Lanseria director, also denied that it had been sold. "We are always being approached by potential investors wanting to buy the airport," said Carlin, without revealing whether talks had become more serious this year.

The airport grew substantially in the past few years with a surge in traffic. kulula.com's scheduled service put the airport on the map, and the low-cost airline has continued to grow its capacity out of Lanseria.

Gidon Novick, joint CEO of Comair, which operates kulula.com, said yesterday the airline would soon add extra flights to Cape Town and Durban despite a slump in domestic travel.
"Lanseria continues to work well for us," he said. Novick said that the extra flights would begin to test Lanseria's ability to cope with many passengers.

"We are starting to see constraints on Lanseria's capacity in various part of our operations, and there is no doubt that the airport facilities will need to be expanded if we expand our flight even further."

Airport manager Gavin Sayce recently confirmed that the airport was looking at expanding, but said no plans had been finalised.

I had a look on kulula's website last night, DUR gets 4x daily (except Sat) and CPT 6x daily flights from HLA. HLA is turning out to be a goldmine for kulula.

Effective 20 April 2009 SV will replace their B777-200ER with an A330-200 on the 2x weekly JNB service.

(Source : http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/)

1Time says sorry

Article By: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:17

South African airline 1Time on Tuesday apologised to its passengers who had to take a bus from Bredasdorp to George after an emergency landing.

"I would like to sincerely apologise to our passengers for the terrible inconvenience, but assure them that their safety and well-being was our number one priority," said 1Time CEO Rodney James in a statement.

The incident took pace on Good Friday, but the airline only confirmed on Tuesday that a Boeing 737 from Johannesburg to George had to make an emergency landing at Overberg Airforce Base near Bredasdorp.

The plane was diverted to the airforce base after it reporting a "wing flap indication warning" because the Overberg facility had a longer runway.

"Each passenger will receive a return flight voucher"

The airline said as a precautionary measure an emergency landing was declared and the aircraft landed safely with no injuries reported.

Passengers were disembarked into a training facility building and offered refreshments from the aircraft.

"Due to the unknown time required to repair the fault and the closing time of George Airport, busses were arranged to fetch our passengers and transport them to George," James said.

"Unfortunately the busses had to come from Cape Town, which meant an uncomfortably long wait for our passengers," he said.

Busses arrived around midnight and passengers arrived at the George Airport at 3.30am.

James said 1Time's George Airport staff stayed on duty throughout the night to make sure that passengers were taken care of on arrival.

"As a token of our apology, each passenger will receive a return flight voucher from our customer relations office," he said.

I have been looking around to see if I can find any more info any IPL flights to RSA from India. From what I can find it seems as if SAA will upgrade BOM to an A340-600 for selected flights to accommodate IPL supporters (http://avindia.blogspot.com/2009/04/travel-bookings-for-ipl-take-off.html).

from airliners.net I read that Air France has confirmed that JNB will be one of the first or the first route to be served by A380 from end of this year/early 2010.
They will change the one daily 77W to the A380 flight, while the other flight which is currently also operating daily with 77W will be reduced to 3 weekly, still with 77W...still I believe it is an increase in capacity, maybe depending about France's chances for the world cup they might reconsider to keep the other flight daily as well.

So, AF first with A380 into South Africa, what else do you guys think before World Cup next year, surely Emirates, probably Qantas. Both BA and Virgin would have like to, but they won't have the aircraft yet, but when they do they'll surely use them here. Lufthansa, depending on how soon they get their first ones. I don't think we'll see Singapore with them here soon.

^^ Great news. CDG-JNB seems to be working out really well for AF.

Excellent news. Big surprise as I would've thought they'd use their first A380 to Montreal. Wonder if we'll see SAA back on the CDG route anytime soon.

In other news SAA has applied for 4 additional frequencies to Nairobi and Aik has released their JNB schedule (not sure if this has already been posted). Daily flights arriving in JNB at around 05:00 and departing around 13:00.

Where do you get the information regarding Arik Air, can't find it on their website. Daily flights seems quite alot to start off with, even if with A330, or are they planning on using the A340-500 on this as well. And starting when?

The JNB-NBO route seems to be hotting up, that means SAA will have 2 daily flights, together with the 3 dailies of Kenya Airways (except Wed, which will probably will still be added also). Surely must be room for someone else, Comair?
On the African Aviation Forum they talk about Kenya planning to soon start flights to Gaborone and Windhoek, probably these will be triangular. Although I would believe a good bet would also be to re-introduce CPT, going via GBE, 2 or 3 weekly, and seeking rights for the CPT-GBE leg as well!

from airliners.net I read that Air France has confirmed that JNB will be one of the first or the first route to be served by A380 from end of this year/early 2010.
They will change the one daily 77W to the A380 flight, while the other flight which is currently also operating daily with 77W will be reduced to 3 weekly, still with 77W...still I believe it is an increase in capacity, maybe depending about France's chances for the world cup they might reconsider to keep the other flight daily as well.

So, AF first with A380 into South Africa, what else do you guys think before World Cup next year, surely Emirates, probably Qantas. Both BA and Virgin would have like to, but they won't have the aircraft yet, but when they do they'll surely use them here. Lufthansa, depending on how soon they get their first ones. I don't think we'll see Singapore with them here soon.

great news regarding AF, really didnt expect it though... I know though from a reliable source at emirates in dubai... that we probably looking at the A380 in JNB in november/december... this is due to the fact that emirates have stopped using the A380 on the new york route thus freeing up 2 A380 aircraft, 1 will be going to toronto, and the other is going to be used for bangkok and JNB.

BA will definately use the A380 to JNB but it's still a while before they get their aircraft (end 2011)

QF has already mentioned JNB as one of there 10 A380 routes.. when this will happen only time will tell, as I think they will wait till 2010 WC and also till they get more A380's

All in all looks like in the next year,SA will see some exciting aircraft

Good news re Arik Air. Daily flights don't really surprise me, South Africa - Nigeria is a really lucrative market. Arik may end up muscling Bellview of the route, although hopefully not.

At some point SAA had 5 weekly flights on the JNB-LOS route, now mostly 4, but over the next few weeks there is some weeks where there is only 3 flights a week, not sure if that's correct though?
I also hope that Bellview doesn't get pushed out, I think they work hard at making this route work, are they now only JNB-LOS, dropped the stop in Douala and not continuing on to Freetown? When they started it was JNB-Douala-Freetown, not even Lagos then.

From what I heard Arik will use their A340-500 for all the flights starting in May.
I think Bellview is nonstop to Lagos now.

An update on how our airports are doing this year. Not good but in line with global trend.

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/6812/acsamonthcopy.jpg (http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=acsamonthcopy.jpg)

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/6993/acsayearcopy.jpg (http://img24.imageshack.us/my.php?image=acsayearcopy.jpg)

Wow that's a big drop in International for Durbz.

^^ LAM stopped their DUR-MPM service which constitutes a major % of DUR's int'l traffic.

Private Zambian airline Zambezi Airlines (IATA code ZJ, www.flyzambezi.com) will launch JNB-Lusaka, Livingstona and Ndola flights starting in May using a B737-500 leased from GECAS.

From their pretty decent looking website:
Zambezi Airlines is a private airline based in Lusaka that began operations in July 2008 with domestic schedule services from Lusaka to Ndola, Livingstone, Kitwe and Chipata and has already established a reputation for excellent customer service and punctuality.

The experienced management team has previously worked with major regional and international airlines and is committed to providing the highest levels of safety and customer service.

In May 2009 Zambezi Airlines will commence regional operations using two Boeing 737-500 aircraft offering both Economy and Premier Business class service. Routes include Lusaka- Johannesburg and vv; Livingstone-Johannesburg and vv; Ndola-Johannesburg and vv and Lusaka to Dar Es Salaam and VV.

The aircraft are leased from GECAS, one of the worlds leading aviation leasing companies and are maintained by Safair in Johannesburg and at the airlines own maintenance facility in Lusaka.

Zambezi Airlines will expand it's route network during the next 2-3 years by continued development of services to and from Zambia and through strategic partnerships with other airlines in the region.

For more information please contact the PR Manager , info@flyzambezi.com

I saw their B737 parked and painted up and SAFAIR so that part is true. Zambia must surely be able to sustain a 'major' regional airline, lets it is ZJ - they seem to know what they are doing.

Afriqiyah Airlines, which has delayed the launch of their JNB service to Sep from July, has recently launched a new website which states they will launch flights to JNB and CPT:

http://www.afriqiyah.aero/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49:afriqiyah-flying-to-7-new-destenations-in-summer&catid=1:news&Itemid=48

This would explain the early arrival into JNB (to continue to CPT) and the late evening departure from JNB (flight originating in CPT). Lets hope it materialises!

Re the stats, it must be remembered that in 2008 the Easter holiday was in March, this year in April, and also the school holidays started much later this year. So April would rather have a smaller decline than April 08, probably still a decline...also April 08 was the last month that Nationwide was still operating, not that that would have had much impact now.
On the Durban intl side it's not much to do with LAM withdrawing DUR-MPM, Airlink has steadily been increasing it's weekly flights on the route. More with Air Mauritius combining 1 of their 2 weeklies with JNB, or cancelling. From October this will all have a different picture as Emirates would suddenly cause for probably increases of 200%+.

Re the Afriqiyah flights:

The schedule now shows that it will be half hour later in JNB @ 04:20 (Tue and Sat mornings), originally was 03:50. Offloading, then departing probably between 05:30 and 06:00 to CPT, arriving there at 07:50.
Only departing CPT again at 18:00, and then again 21:20 from JNB.
So still a long long day standing in CPT, but apparently the schedule is fitted around connections in Tripoli to most European as well as other North and West African flights.
I'm a bit sceptic about the CPT tag-on though, if it's really viable?

^^ Confimration of the schedule for Afriqiyah's flights:

8U770 TIP1930 - 0420+1JNB0600+1 - 0750+1CPT 330 15
8U771 CPT1800 - 1950JNB2120 - 0610+1TIP 330 26

Scheduled to commence on 11 Sep 2009.

^^ Would be nice for CTIA's international departure boards though... when one stands there, looks more like you're at a European outpost airport, rather than an African one. :)

I wounder what contribution the IPL made in terms of visitors, i don't think it did much, but walking at the V&A tells a different story.

The schdeules for Zamabezi Airlines have been loaded:

Lusaka - Johannesburg 1 Daily eff 12MAY09, with additional flights added later
ZJ225 LUN0815 - 1015JNB 735 D
ZJ231 LUN1445 - 1645JNB 735 7 03JUL09 -
ZJ235 LUN1800 - 2000JNB 735 x567 03JUL09 -

ZJ226 JNB0900 - 1100LUN 735 D 03JUL09 -
ZJ234 JNB1730 - 1930LUN 735 D

Ndola - Johannesburg 3 weekly eff 12MAY09
ZJ269 NLA1430 - 1645JNB 735 246
ZJ268 JNB1120 - 1335NLA 735 246

Livingstone - Johannesburg 3 weekly eff 26JUN09, 4th weekly from 05AUG09
ZJ249 LVI1425 - 1610JNB 735 157
ZJ249 LVI1435 - 1620JNB 735 3 05AUG09 -

ZJ248 JNB1140 - 1325LVI 735 157
ZJ248 JNB1140 - 1325LVI 735 3 05AUG09 -

Lusaka - Dar es Salaam 3 weekly eff 03JUL09
ZJ306 LUN1145 - 1500DAR 735 135
ZJ307 DAR1545 - 1700LUN 735 15
ZJ307 DAR1700 - 1815LUN 735 3

Source: http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/

just saw that qatar airways have increased frequencies to JNB from daily to 10 weekly

just saw that qatar airways have increased frequencies to JNB from daily to 10 weekly

Effective when? Amadeus doesn't show this...?

No, not yet, it's their prelim schedule only for effect 28March 2010.
JNB will receive 3 more weekly, to make it 10, while still only 4 continues on to CPT.

No, not yet, it's their prelim schedule only for effect 28March 2010.
JNB will receive 3 more weekly, to make it 10, while still only 4 continues on to CPT.

oh cool thanx for elaborating... flight global was confusing the hell out of me as to when the increase would occur

Thermal scanners for SA airports


30 April 2009

Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) is to install thermal scanners capable of detecting drug smugglers, as well as passengers infected with viruses such as swine flu, at the country's airport terminals.

Acsa spokesperson Bongani Maseko said the decision to install the expensive thermal scanners was taken "a long time ago" as part of Acsa's upgrading of its CCTV equipment.

At the same time, it would support the Department of Health in its measures to ensure that South African was protected from the current swine flu outbreak in some parts of the world.

"We intend buying [the scanners] within this financial year," Maseko said.

The equipment detects people's body temperatures and can also be used to detect drug smugglers.

"Those people who swallow drugs are known to have high temperatures ... with viruses you display flu-like symptoms and a high temperature. The thermal scanner has the ability to detect that," Maseko said.

High alert
South African ports of entry are on high alert after 159 people died of suspected swine flu in Mexico, with another 1 311 exhibiting symptoms.

Seven other countries have confirmed infections, while another 17 have suspected infections.

The World Health Organisation has raised its warning level on the disease to a level four, with level six being the highest warning level.

Meanwhile, Frost & Sullivan's senior consultant for Aerospace & Defence in Asia Pacific, Haris Izmee, said the airline industry might see a decline in business because of swine flu, although this would not be severe.

The impact of swine flu on the airline industry could be similar to that which followed the 11 September attack in 2001 on the World Trade Centre in New York and the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) in 2003.

"At this moment, the swine flu outbreak is serious but not a global threat - yet," Izmee said.

Sapa

So there is apparently yet another brand new start-up carrier in SA - Spliice. They are talking about B762 equipment, possible flights between JNB and CPT and maybe to PAR and/or DUS.

Read about Spliice on another forum, good luck to them.

Re the thermal scanners, apparently Lanseria have had them for a couple of months already.

Thermal scanners hm?

So here I am getting out of my car about to walk into work when I hear this loudish noise of a plane. My work place in Morningside is part of a route flown by planes that come from Jhb, so me always fascinated by the sight of planes no matter what size they are took a look. So to my surprise it was this baby!!! SAA Boeing 747!!! & it landed in Durban, Im 100% sure, it took a turn towards the Airport as it flew over the city and started to descend! anyone in the area PLEASE go take pic's of this beauty not often we Durban folk are spoilt by the sight of a 747 at DIA!!!! Also whats the reason behind flying it down? There isnt any IPL games on this weekend???

http://i40.tinypic.com/dxcjsl.jpg

^^ According to ACSA's live flight information, SA053 from Accra scheduled to land in JNB at 07:00 was diverted. That may be the reason.

Wonder why?

Also 1 from Singapore, but its showing SAA and another airlines logo

^^ I think this is why (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20090507084847474C360397).

Saw 2 Kingfisher Airlines planes parked at DUR on tuesday morning. Wonder how many are currently in the country.

So here I am getting out of my car about to walk into work when I hear this loudish noise of a plane. My work place in Morningside is part of a route flown by planes that come from Jhb, so me always fascinated by the sight of planes no matter what size they are took a look. So to my surprise it was this baby!!! SAA Boeing 747!!! & it landed in Durban, Im 100% sure, it took a turn towards the Airport as it flew over the city and started to descend! anyone in the area PLEASE go take pic's of this beauty not often we Durban folk are spoilt by the sight of a 747 at DIA!!!! Also whats the reason behind flying it down? There isnt any IPL games on this weekend???

http://i40.tinypic.com/dxcjsl.jpg

hey DB, i went to the airport this morning after seeing the same sight... unfortunately it wasnt a 747 but an A340-200

other celebrities at the airport was a singapore airlines 777-200.since there was a huge storm in jozi this morning and considering that all the morning flights from JNB were delayed,these must be diversions since no passengers got off the aircraft nor did any get on... the only reason i can think why its here is that it was a chartered flight to bring in delegates for the indaba.

airport was crazy this morning but still great to get see heavies coming in rather than the same old 737

hey DB, i went to the airport this morning after seeing the same sight... unfortunately it wasnt a 747 but an A340-200

other celebrities at the airport was a singapore airlines 777-200.since there was a huge storm in jozi this morning and considering that all the morning flights from JNB were delayed,these must be diversions since no passengers got off the aircraft nor did any get on... the only reason i can think why its here is that it was a chartered flight to bring in delegates for the indaba.

airport was crazy this morning but still great to get see heavies coming in rather than the same old 737

Ah I see, sun was in my eyes after it flew over so couldnt make out if it had a hump or not, but one thing for sure it was big! damn did you manage to snap any of them for us? :D

how good it will be when these planes are a regular sight in Durbs again

Ah I see, sun was in my eyes after it flew over so couldnt make out if it had a hump or not, but one thing for sure it was big! damn did you manage to snap any of them for us? :D

nort hey, i was at my girlfriends house so didnt have a camera and my cellphone's cam isnt that great...but was awesome to see the 2 heavies..like dysan said... in 2 years we will have so many around we will be getting sick of them

how good it will be when these planes are a regular sight in Durbs again

Definitely.

TAM has confirmed it will launch GRU-JNB flights by Sep 09. Brazil-South Africa is a lucrative market (even more so for 2010) and SAA needs the competition on the route.

Source: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/4405991/

Delta to offer no-stop service between SA, US

May 11 2009 at 11:59AM

Was moaning about this for a couple years now... finally, Dakar has been ditched!!! Yipee... non-stop! :)

Delta Air Lines will offer a non-stop service between South Africa and Atlanta in the US starting on June 2, the airline said on Monday.

This first-ever non-stop service will replace the daily service via Dakar.

Passengers flying non-stop to Delta's hub at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport will save around three hours in each direction when compared to the current one-stop service and six hours when compared to routes over Europe, the airline said in a statement.

They would also be able to make connections to 175 cities in the US, Latin America and the Caribbean. "Given the strong demand on this route, we're upgrading to a Boeing 777 aircraft, which has more capacity," said Margaret Copeland, Delta's sales manager for South Africa.

Delta, which also operated three weekly services from Cape Town, was the only US airline to link Africa and the US.

By June 2009 it would operate from nine cities in seven African countries: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos, Abuja, Nairobi, Dakar, Monrovia, Cairo and Accra. - Sapa

TAM has confirmed it will launch GRU-JNB flights by Sep 09. Brazil-South Africa is a lucrative market (even more so for 2010) and SAA needs the competition on the route.

Source: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/4405991/

Would love to also see a LAN flight, perhaps from EZE (or even Santiago) to CPT, with a good SA partner with fluid onward connections to DUR, PLZ and JNB, and obviously LAN will be able to have fluid connections on the other side to Santiago, Chile and many other "southern cone" destinations. They could capture same amazing connections to the Western Seaboard of the USA/Canada to South Africa this way, the connectivity from there via Santiago is excellent.

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/86871642.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1935D43C78106CDF6A6711E3458D90A954DE30A760B0D811297

Been away for a week, catching up on all these things of the last few days...
Was in Joburg the morning of 7 May, and that was quite a storm...
Also saw a Kingfisher A320 standing at JNB yesterday, together with another private A319 of Indian origin.
Good news that TAM is still mentioning Joburg, hopefully we'll have confirmed schedules soon, then we'll be more sure...seeing that Arik and V Australia is keeping us hanging on a thread.
Also doesn't seem like Zambezi Airlines flights have started yesterday, any news out there what's going on?
No mention here of SAX launching daily JNB-MAUN from 1 July, it's on amadeus but availability still blanked out, not on SAA/X booking engines either.
SAA operating a few extra flights over the next 2 weeks to Mumbai, together with A340-600 also operating some existing flights, obvious demand for the final stretch of the IPL, any idea if we might still see some charters from Indian airlines, ie. Kingfisher?

Re the ZJ flights, their website is showing flights only starting from the 2nd of June 2009, rather than the middle of May.

Incidentally 2 June 2009 is also the date on which DL start their nonstop ATL-JNB service.

how good it will be when these planes are a regular sight in Durbs again

Well, if new KZN Premier, Zweli Mkhize, is to be believed (as quoted in today's Mercury), new Minister of Transport, Sbu Ndebele (immediate predecessor to Zweli Mkhikze), will be doing his utmost to bring more international flights to Durbs. Hopes he puts ACSA in their place if they try to hamper Durbs getting more direct international flights.

More on the Maun flights...

SAX heads for Maun
Thursday, May 14, 2009

SA Express Airways will launch daily flights to Maun, Botswana, from July 1. The flights depart Johannesburg at 10h15, arriving in Maun at 12h05 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The return flights operate on the same day, departing Maun at 13h10, arriving in Johannesburg at 14h50. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, flights depart Johannesburg at 10h30, arriving in Maun at 12h20. The return flights depart Maun at 13h10, arriving in Johannesburg at 14h50. The airline will use a CRJ 50-seater aircraft in a single cabin configuration. Passengers will be allowed a maximum of 20kg checked baggage.
Jeanette Phillips (jeanettep@nowmedia.co.za)

i found this article, suprised that nothing was mentioned on the news or here on SSC for that matter

Incident: British Airways B744 at Johannesburg on May 11th 2009, two thrust reversers indicated open, leading edge flaps retracted

The crew of a British Airways Boeing 747-400, registration G-BYGA performing flight BA-56 from Johannesburg (South Africa) to London Heathrow,EN (UK), decided to dump fuel and return to Johannesburg after two thrust reversers were indicated unlocked after takeoff. The airplane landed safely about 120 minutes after takeoff.

Engineers determined that the indication was false, the thrust reversers had been properly locked in closed position.

The flight was initially postponed by 23 hours and later cancelled.

New information leaked by aviation sources in South Africa on May 13th - claimed to be based on the readout of the digital flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder as well as testimony of the flight crew - suggests, that one engine flamed out during rotation for liftoff, another engine uncommandedly rolled back to idle at the same time, two engine thrust reversers indicated unlocked and the leading edge flaps retracted. According to that information the crew levelled off at 35 feet AGL, managed to recover the idle engine and resumed the initial climb out on three engines. Subsequently the crew dumped fuel and returned to Johannesburg for a safe landing. South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority (SA CAA) is reported to have impounded the airplane.

Other aviation sources in South Africa on May 14th also claiming to have seen the developing report by SA CAA deny, that there was any loss of thrust, no engine flamed out, no engine rolled back to idle. Those sources however confirm, that engines #2 and #3 showed spurious thrust reverser unlocked indications while the airplane was still on the ground causing the leading edge flaps to be automatically retracted by system logic. The stick shaker came on at a height of 12 feet, the crew levelled off at about 40 feet, accelerated and continued the climb. At about 160 feet AGL the leading edge flaps came back down to their commanded deployed position.

British Airways declined to comment pointing to the ongoing investigation by South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority and stated, that they are fully cooperating with authorities of South Africa.

South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority could not yet be reached for comment regarding the information of May 13th and 14th.

www.avherald.com

Saw 3 BA 744s parked next to eachother at JNB on Tuesday, wondered why.

Just some news coming through the wire re Arik. Staff training at JNB will conclude on the 20th of May, so a late May/early June launch looks on the cards. Their 2nd A340-500 is all ready and waiting at TLS.

That's a bit quick for launch, then they should have announced already and release schedules, we're already moving into late-May. Although it's a popular route and probably has many late bookings, I still believe they would at least give a month or six weeks notice. Would be great before end of June!
Btw, staff training meaning what, have they already hired groundstaff in JNB?

Massive revamp for Pretoria airport

May 15 2009 at 09:47AM
By Barry Bateman

As of October, scheduled flights from Wonderboom Airport will connect Pretoria with Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.

The operator has yet to be announced but the service will provide a major boost for the city's tourism and business industry, and serve as a hub for thousands of football fans during the 2010 World Cup.

The airport, owned and operated by the Tshwane Metro Council, is expected to handle aircraft with a seating capacity of between 80 and 100 people, such as the popular Bombardier Dash 8 operated by SA Express.

Tshwane Mayor Gwen Ramokgopa yesterday toured the facility, where she was shown some of the projects, which are well under way.

The main terminal building is filled with scaffolding, while the aircraft usually parked on the apron have given way to bulldozers and construction trucks. In the past financial year about R170-million has been pumped into four projects at the airport, which will bring it up to standard for the World Cup next year.

Airport manager Peet van Rensburg said one of the projects was a revamp of the arrival and departure hall and the construction of a holding bay on the eastern runway.

He said R100-million was being spent on a new aircraft parking area and an aircraft parking facility near the maintenance area.

"The public transport and parking facility has also been upgraded, and we have replaced the weather-monitoring system," he said.

A vital component of the upgrade projects was the purchase of new firefighting vehicles, which will be delivered in the coming weeks.

Van Rensburg added that after OR Tambo International and Cape Town International airports, Wonderboom was the third-busiest in the country.

But there were budget problems and the airport had not been allocated any money for the next financial year, which begins in July.

Another problem was their maintenance budget.

"These buildings are old, but we have not had an increase in this budget. We have received instructions to deal only with emergency items, like changing a light bulb on the runway. Some of our tenants have threatened to withhold their rent because we are not living up to the contract we have with them," he said.

Ramokgopa said the next financial year's draft budget was still being approved, and there was something in it for the airport.

It was one of the city's valuable assets, she said.


This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on May 15, 2009

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1000030

That's a bit quick for launch, then they should have announced already and release schedules, we're already moving into late-May. Although it's a popular route and probably has many late bookings, I still believe they would at least give a month or six weeks notice. Would be great before end of June!
Btw, staff training meaning what, have they already hired groundstaff in JNB?

I don't exactly know what they mean by staff training, this is just info I've read on A.net. I also agree re: the May/early June launch being too soon, but again taken straight from A.net.

The Wonderboom flights story has been doing the rounds for about a year now. All of the LCC's denied any intention of flying out of Wonderboom yet the council is convinced it has an operator. Would be good if ture.

is expected to handle aircraft with a seating capacity of between 80 and 100 people, such as the popular Bombardier Dash 8 operated by SA Express

They're not even sure what they're talking about, the Dash 8s have 50 seat capacity, the larger Q400 has 74.
That seating range puts all the LCCs out, they have much larger aircraft.
SAX's Dash8-300s won't be a good bet to fly to CPT,PLZ. The Q400s might probably, but depends how the public reacts to using propplanes. The CRJ200/700s might be perfect for such operation, but is the runway long enough?
Maybe Airlink with BAe/Avro?
For the surrounding residents I'd say the Q400 is the best bet.

Once again, it has been mentioned over and over again and (just like Oudtshoorn, Plettenberg Bay, Bisho, Saldanha, Mkuze) this news pops up every few years, if not every year!
This time sounds more convincing, I truly hope it materialises.

Once again, it has been mentioned over and over again and (just like Oudtshoorn, Plettenberg Bay, Bisho, Saldanha, Mkuze) this news pops up every few years, if not every year!
This time sounds more convincing, I truly hope it materialises.

Right on cue re: Bisho...

Air Link Plans to Fly to Bhisho Airport

Bhisho — Bhisho Airport is expected to have the first commercial airline landing on its runways in the near future.

This follows a recent meeting at Bhisho Airport between the provincial Department of Roads and Transport and Air Link on the possibility of introducing flights between Cape Town, Bhisho Airport and Mthatha.

The department's delegation was led by the MEC for Transport and Safety Gloria Barry, who expressed appreciation by this show of interest.

Air Link Chief Operations Officer Johan van Jaarsveld said the newly-refurbished Bhisho Airport infrastructure met their requirements.

"There is a huge opportunity for us here and any Air Link aircraft can land here. We will send an operations team to do an audit of operational facilities," said Mr van Jaarsveld.

The company further requested the department to urgently upgrade its infrastructure at the Mthatha Airport in order to introduce an evening flight between Johannesburg and Mthatha.

It was agreed that, while waiting for the physical upgrade to commence at the Mthatha Airport by July 2009, the runway lights needed urgent attention.

This initiative forms part of the department's Blue Skyway Aviation Strategy, which seeks to attract investment to the Bhisho and Mthatha Airports.

The department intends to have a second airline between Mthatha and Johannesburg, including an evening flight. A future link to Durban from Mthatha is envisaged as soon as the correct type of service is developed.

An important goal is to link Port Elizabeth to Mthatha via Bhisho with the service geared for faster movement between these three areas and to reduce the number of government vehicles on these routes.

This also includes ensuring that the Mthatha Airport contributes in tourism development in the region through improving access to the Wild Coast, which is a popular tourist destination.

The airport will also contribute to local business development and facilitates connectivity with local businesses as people will now come directly to Mthatha instead of flying to East London and then drive for three hours.

"Our doors are wide open for any investor that wants to come forward and add value in this project," said MEC Barry.

2009/05/15
Commercial flights at long last for Bhisho
Rochelle de Kock (Herald)


Transport and Safety MEC Gloria Barry

After two years of refurbishment and R78-million later, the Eastern Cape Roads and Transport Department has announced that the first commercial flight from the Bhisho airport may be taking off in the next few months.

A meeting between the department and Airlink last week at the airport, which has been a white elephant for more than 20 years, has opened up the possibility of introducing flights between Cape Town, Bhisho and Mthatha.

Airlink chief operations officer Johan van Jaarsveld said the newly refurbished Bhisho Airport infrastructure met the company‘s requirements.

“There is a huge opportunity for us here and any Airlink aircraft can land here.

“We will send an operations team to do an audit of operational facilities.”

Van Jaarsveld urged the department to move hastily with the upgrading of Mthatha Airport in order to introduce an evening flight between Johannesburg and the Transkei.

The agreement reached between the department and Airlink was that urgent attention would be paid to the Bhisho runway lights while waiting for the physical upgrade to start at Mthatha Airport by July.

Department spokesman Ncedo Kumbaca said: “This initiative forms part of the department‘s Blue Skyway Aviation Strategy, which seeks to attract investment to the Bhisho and Mthatha airports. A future link to Durban from Mthatha is envisaged as soon as the correct type of service is developed.

“An important goal is to link Port Elizabeth to Mthatha via Bhisho, with the service geared for faster movement between these three areas, and to reduce the number of government vehicles on these routes”.

Transport and Safety MEC Gloria Barry said after the meeting that she was happy with the interest Airlink had shown.

“Our doors are wide open for any investor that wants to come forward and add value in this project,” Barry said.

Kumbaca said the upgrading of Mthatha Airport would further promote tourism development in the region through improving access to the Wild Coast.

“This will ensure that the airport contributes to local business development and facilitate connectivity with local businesses, as people will now come directly to Mthatha instead of flying to East London and then driving for three hours,” Kumbaca said.

Bhisho Airport will get the go-ahead after an Airlink audit.

Source: http://www.flyafrica.info/forums/showthread.php?t=19205

There is undoubtedly a market between the Transkei and JNB, even 1T were mentioning Umtata flights once upon a time.

Arik Air is starting its daily JNB flights on 1 June. http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/4416009/
It's also confirmed on their website.

Awesome news, glad to see it finally confirmed.

c/o Arik's website (www.arikair.com):
Arik Air announces services to Johannesburg

Airline to operate daily non-stop services between Lagos and Johannesburg from 1 June 2009

Lagos, Nigeria, 18 May 2009 - Arik Air, Nigeria’s leading commercial airline today announced the launch of services to its second long haul international destination, Johannesburg, South Africa. The airline’s new daily non-stop service between Lagos and Johannesburg will commence on Monday, 1 June 2009.

In announcing the new flights, Arik Air’s Managing Director, Mike McTighe explained: “This is a particularly exciting development for all travellers between Lagos and Johannesburg. Our service will be operated by a newly acquired Airbus A340-500 aircraft. This allows us to offer our on-board Guests the very highest levels of in-flight service.”

Mr. McTighe added: “The airline’s first A340-500 is proving popular on the airline’s daily service between Lagos and London Heathrow. This second new airbus is configured in the same spacious layout, with 36 seats in Premier Class and 201 seats in Economy Class.”

Flights will depart Lagos Murtala Muhammed International Airport each evening at 21.35 local time and arrive into Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International Airport at 04.50 the following morning. The return flight will depart Johannesburg every afternoon at 13.45 local time, arriving back into Lagos at 19.00 local time on the same day.

“With such an attractive on-board product, Arik Air is very proud to be able to offer now, our awarding-winning service to customers wishing to travel between Lagos and Johannesburg,” said Mike McTighe. “Guests in Premier Class will enjoy luxurious leather-upholstered seats that convert into fully flat 75-inch long beds, a state-of-the-art personal video- and audio-on-demand entertainment system and a wide 17-inch personal TV screen. Guests will also have their own in-flight bar area in which to relax,” he stated.

The airline’s Economy cabin offers seat-back entertainment and comes in a comfortable 2-4-2 across seat layout. Each Guest has up to 50% more legroom than competitors. “No Guest will be more than one seat away from the aisle,” emphasised Mr. McTighe.

As with the launch of all Arik Air’s new routes, the airline’s team has undertaken considerable planning and research. Mr. McTighe pointed out: “The lead-up to the launch of Johannesburg is no different. We are very much aware of the strong economic and cultural links that Nigeria and South Africa maintain. We also know that strong business links unite the cities of Lagos and Johannesburg in particular. Our new Arik Air service is a direct response to the requirements of the various segments of the marketplace.”

Arik Air is confident that the airline’s attractive flight timings on the new route will prove popular with its rapidly expanding customer base in Nigeria. Mr. McTighe said he was confident that the convenient schedule would also prove popular with the airline’s future customers in South Africa. “In addition, the timings of the flights will make it easier for customers to connect to and from several domestic points within each country, especially within Nigeria since Arik Air already offers an extensive domestic flight network,” he stressed.

Mike McTighe went on to say: “We continue to deliver on our promises to make Arik Air a Nigerian airline that Nigerians are proud to fly. We constantly monitor, adapt and improve our products and services for customers.” He concluded: “We believe that the combination of our new daily non-stop service to Johannesburg and our innovative product offering is a winning formula. We are confident that over the coming months the South African market will become as positive about, and as loyal to, our brand as the market is here at home in Nigeria.”

Arik Air is Nigeria’s leading commercial airline, currently operating a fleet of 26 state-of-the art regional, medium haul and long haul aircraft. The airline serves 19 airports across Nigeria as well as Accra (Ghana), Contonu (Benin) and London Heathrow (UK). It operates a combined number of over 110 daily flights from its hubs in Lagos and Abuja and employs a workforce of over 1,300. For more information, visit Arikair.com.

Flight times on the LOS-JNB sector are almost identical, while SA leaves JNB a couple of hours later on the JNB-LOS sector.

Dube Tradeport / KSIA will def change the face of KZN's economy and tourism...
we have no idea how much - Durban 2020 here we come!

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4/zuidafrica/DubeTradePortJPG.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4/zuidafrica/DubeTradePortKSIA2JPG.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4/zuidafrica/DubeTradePortKSIA3JPG.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4/zuidafrica/DubeTradePortKSIA4JPG.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4/zuidafrica/DubeTradePortKSIA1JPG.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4/zuidafrica/DubeTradePortKSIA5JPG.jpg

Great news re the Arik confirmation...nothing on amadeus yet, but probably soon. What bothers me is that why is SAA still just having 3 weekly flights then, who is in the wrong, SAA being cautious or Arik being optimistic?
I really hope Arik does well to justify daily flights, plus I still hope Bellview can compete, we don't really want to lose any airlines.

as promised...
the Dube Tradeport KSIA Support Zone 1st IMPRESSION!!!

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4/zuidafrica/DubeTradePortSupportZoneJPG.jpg

looks like Dubai Airport Free Zone , when is this due to go?

Novel easy-fly plan for 2010 Cup visitors
JULIUS BAUMANN

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail article Print-Friendly



Aviation and Tourism Editor

VISITORS to next year’s Soccer World Cup will be able to check in at soccer stadiums and board any airline regardless of which one issued the tickets.

The service is part of plans by Airports Company SA (Acsa) to cope with 450000 fans expected in the country next June. Fans are expected to be staying around the country and flying into cities for particular matches, putting pressure on airports and domestic airlines.

Bongani Maseko, group executive overseeing airports operations at Acsa, said yesterday that a team would travel to Rome next week for the Uefa Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona to observe the logistics of moving fans in and out the city.

“It is as close to a World Cup match as we can get, and we want to establish the feasibility of checking in passengers at the stadium.”

Maseko said that Acsa was also in talks with airlines about the possibility of passengers using a ticket on any airline. “The emphasis is on getting passengers moving as quickly as possible.”



Main airports were also expected to be open 24 hours a day. “The biggest pressure will be in the first round when we have 32 teams playing 48 matches in 10 cities. Our main airports will operate 24 hours while the smaller airports will extend their hours.”


Acsa had already approached the retailers and ramp handlers at the airport as well as Air Traffic and Navigational Service to provide an extended service.

Additional temporary staff would also be employed over the period, but only permanent Acsa staff would be used in secure or regulated areas.


Maseko said he was concerned about the available seat capacity on domestic routes, particularly to smaller destinations such as Polokwane and Bloemfontein. “If you look at an airport such as Bloemfontein, on any given day there are no more than 4000 seats available on airlines serving the city, and yet the stadiums seat between 40000 and 50000 people. It is clear that we will need to double or even triple capacity on match days.”


All domestic airlines have begun planning for 2010.

Maseko said planning was complicated by Fifa finalising its match schedule only in December.

“Once we know which teams have qualified, and where they are playing, we will be able to put more specific plans in place.”

baumannj@bdfm.co.za

that idea is clever but seems unrealistic...someone can end up paying for a ticket on SAA (which is more expensive) then end up climbing onto a 1time aircraft... A bit optimistic to me, the logistics of this concept is very complex... on another note, are our domestic carriers purchasing or leasing more aircraft come 2010...we could even see A340-600 doing domestic rounds in order to keep up with demand

Souds like a formula for confusion, chaos and a lot of disgruntled passengers.
I don't think our local carriers are going to have the capcity needed. Agreements should be sought with the foreign airlines to use their widebodies that sit around in JNB all day.

^^ agreed, said that long ago. we need the biggies flying domestically during the WC

SAA itself has a few A340s sitting idle during the day, so they might be used more. Also almost all the airlines can use their aircraft a bit more, currently not every aircraft is being utilised to its full, Kulula and 1Time included...infact I believe SA Express is the one airline utilising its aircraft the best, doing maximum rotations and having shorter turn-around times.
All airlines should also try not to have major scheduled maintanence on aircraft for that month, have it done a little earlier.
I guess there would be enough spare aircraft standing around that can be chartered, mostly from Safair, but on the other hand I don't think any of us would want all these lovely foreigners and ourselves to be still flying around in old 737-200s and DC9s and MD82s...although it might still be done by 1time and kulula by then.
All domestic routes would be fully utilised, there is none that can be cut from to add to others, ie: ELS, GRJ, KIM, PMB, RCB etc...all destinations which is not hosting matches, but might be hosting teams and has contracted MATCH hospitality accomodation. Btw, I read somewhere that at the moment the Garden Route is the area with the most contracted beds for MATCH where there is not games being played. Also the regional routes will also be fully utilised, GBE, WDH, VFA, LVI, LUN, MPM, MRU...not exactly sure on how Harare will be doing...
If operations is allowed for 24hours or extended hours at the smaller airports, it might mean that airlines can use their aircraft more, then the problem is mainly to have the staff to do all the flights, pilots, aircrew...can you contract these people to just work for a month for you?
If any international airlines would be to help out, the first would probably be Emirates!
Btw, would the bigger national teams have their own aircraft that they would fly around with...Brazil, Germany, England...? If so, what do the lesser teams do, do they go on commercial flights or is Fifa responsible for chartering the around, ie: Iraq, Senegal, Uruguay, South Africa?

^^ Being able to "fly on any airline regardless of who issued the ticket" is the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a loooong time. It doesn't work that way. I do agree though that simply extending hours of operation will solve the problem. There is a lot of capacity which is just sitting "idle" during some parts of the day due to lower demand.
Also, our company (not sure about any others) have been asked if we will be willing to have our aircraft used domestically for one or two flights, since it is parked at the airport all day anyways....

It typical in Oz to have internaltional flights (QF from Sing to Adelaide then onto Melbourne) dropp off passengers in Adelaide and also pick up more for the Adl-Melb route. Only headache is arriving at melbourne international and going through a side express domestic channel out of customes so no passport needed.

Should see SAA big birds doing the same especially during peak where London to JHB lets off 60% of the passoengers and loads more get on to go the CT

as promised...
the Dube Tradeport KSIA Support Zone 1st IMPRESSION!!!

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4/zuidafrica/DubeTradePortSupportZoneJPG.jpg

oh ok, nice!

Although the ConfedCup is much much smaller, it is still a test-run for the World Cup and for this the only domestic route tested is JNB-BFN.
Regarding my earlier remark of SAX being most capable, this comes to prove, they have adjusted schedules around the matches in Bloem:
I believe there is a match on 24 June in Bloem which might be significant, SAX has added several flights for 24 and 25 June, of which there is 4 flights departing from BFN to JNB in the night between 00:00 and 00:45...so this I presume is for spectators not spending the night and returning immediately after the game?
Btw, for World Cup next year would Pilansberg/SunCity airport be used again regarding matches at Rustenburg?

Is there somewhere we can find out the impact WorldCup 06 had on Germany's domestic air travel and what exactly were done...although I know the country is smaller and more spectators would probably have travelled in Germany and regionally by train and also that several of participating countries were just next door, were there infact a difference in air travel?

It typical in Oz to have internaltional flights (QF from Sing to Adelaide then onto Melbourne) dropp off passengers in Adelaide and also pick up more for the Adl-Melb route. Only headache is arriving at melbourne international and going through a side express domestic channel out of customes so no passport needed.

Should see SAA big birds doing the same especially during peak where London to JHB lets off 60% of the passoengers and loads more get on to go the CT

This was happening up to the late 90's. I remember specifically booking on the 747 flights from JNB to CPT in business class and enjoyed the flight that never took longer than 1 hour 40 minutes. The back of the bording pass was orange for domestic passengers that allowed one to walk through passport control. Same system still in use in Brazil between Sao Paulo and Rio.

It was stopped in SA because BA, Lufthansa and others complained that they were not allowed to do the same.

Was just having a look at Arik Air's website and on their route map (http://www.arikair.com/arikair/images_site/routeMap.swf) they list CPT as a planned destination. Good to see an African airline thinking of serving other cities in RSA. I am sure it is still a way off however.

Aviation industry must brace itself for minor turbulence
Sapa Published: 2009/05/27 11:50:19 AM

Airspace restrictions during the Confederations Cup may affect the aviation industry's day-to-day operations, the SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) said today

Airspace restrictions during the Confederations Cup may affect the aviation industry's day-to-day operations, the SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) said today.

SACAA was expecting higher than usual air traffic volumes during the Confederations Cup which begins on June 14.

“As would be expected leading up to and during the Confederations Cup, much of the transportation of supporters, players and officials will be by air, and this mode of travel will also feature prominently in many other activities in and around the host cities," SACAA CEO Colin Jordaan said.

"... the SACAA, with the collaboration of the department of transport, ATNS (Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company), SA Police Services and the SA Air Force needs to ensure that air safety and security measures are in place and are properly co-ordinated,” Jordaan told a media briefing in Midrand.

“Unfortunately one of those measures involves airspace restrictions around host cities, prior to, during and after each game.”

Jordaan said an Aeronautical Information Publication Supplement has been issued, which outlined specific temporary restricted airspace areas.

“This measure will affect areas and airports situated closer to the stadia in the various host cities,” Jordaan said.

These airports include OR Tambo International, Lanseria, Rand, Grand Central, Bloemfontein and Pilanesberg.

Jordaan said a temporary airspace restriction would be placed on an 80km radius for OR Tambo International, Bloemfontein and Rustenburg airports from midnight on June 13 to midnight on June 28.

No restrictions would be placed on Durban and Cape Town airports as no games would be played in these cities.

Further airspace restrictions would be placed on the immediate vicinity (an eight kilometre) radius, around all the stadiums from two hours before a game starts, until an hour after the final whistle blows, Jordaan said.

Jordaan said there would be no additional security restrictions on any passengers flying on scheduled flights, as the current security measures in place at airports were adequate.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=71939

5 months till the opening of CTIA

According to Travelinfo 1Time will be launching 5x weekly flights to Livingstone at a still to be announce date.

^^ Good news! 1T have had their eye on that route for quite a while now.

LANSERIA International Airport has been chosen by the City as a prime candidate for expansion.

This comes after a study by the City's department of economic development of all existing airports, their current roles and the potential for establishing a new airport in Johannesburg.

The report also investigated their potential to play a critical role in helping Joburg to achieve its 9 percent growth target by 2014, says Lindokuhle Mkhumane, the programme manager of the economic and industrial support programme in spatial economic development.

According to Mkhumane, the initial study looked at two options: the development of a new airport and the expansion of an existing airport to play a crucial role in growing Joburg's economy.

The report found that there was no need to build a new airport, and it would not be economically sensible to do so. Joburg already has an international airport - Lanseria, in the west of the city; and in the east, the country's main international airport, OR Tambo, in Ekurhuleni.

Enough land
Grand Central Airport, in Midrand, was looked at with a view to expansion, but it was rejected because there was not enough land for development and a lack of scope for expansion. Lanseria, on the other hand, was already operating as an international airport and there was enough land for development and for it to serve as an anchor for an airport city development.

Therefore, Lanseria was chosen for expansion, says Mkhumane.

The department of economic development made a presentation to the mayoral committee earlier this month, where possible options for the airport city were highlighted, including expanding Lanseria airport.

The first is a public-private partnership, in which the City would provide shares of development capital. This cash would be used for the core airport development and for all supporting infrastructure, such as transport access and services.

The second option is airport city facilitation only. Lanseria would remain a privately owned entity and private funding would be sought for any direct airport-related development. The City would provide facilities and finances to help with the development, and the area around the airport would be developed in terms of roads and infrastructure.

Another option is guidance-only, in which the City would promote the development of the airport and its surroundings, as well as provide guidelines for the developments.

Lastly, a City-owned airport, a public enterprise, is an option. It would be owned, or majority-owned by the Joburg Metro; its development and operations would be managed and financed by the City.

Funds
Major considerations for all these options include the ability to raise funds and the present owners' willingness to expand. "After the presentation was made, the support was given for the upgrade, wherein the City will facilitate the development of secondary initiatives linked to the airport," says Makhosana Msezana, the director of spatial economic development.

"The mayoral committee fully supports expanding the Lanseria airport and opposes building a new one. They are supportive of the airport city initiative and they feel that the site reservation should be undertaken as an airport city, although this will take a number of years.

"The City should facilitate secondary economic development opportunities such as residential developments, tourism, special economic zone, research and development, industrial developments and related developments around the airport city," he says.

The mayoral committee, in principle, has agreed on an operations model for the airport city, in which Joburg will play a facilitation role. The airport will be a private business; the land around it is owned by the City and that is where the developments facilitation will take place.

The feasibility reports indicate that the Lanseria expansion will require about R7-billion over the next 20 years, he concedes.

Expanding Lanseria to serve as an aerotropolis is a concept based on an economic strategy that includes non-noise sensitive manufacturing industries and others such as freight forwarding, aircraft maintenance, express couriers, warehousing, hotels and conference centres.

Aerotropolis
An aerotropolis is an airport with diverse land use in the surrounding areas, reaching a radius of up to 30 kilometres. It integrates the aero zone and the surrounding area, which is residential with commercial space.

An airport city is the foundation of an aerotropolis and is a special case of a hub airport, which accommodates international and domestic flights. They are also transfer points for international and domestic flights.

An airport city is the area that directly surrounds the airport, housing related industries, such as freight forwarding, aircraft maintenance, manufacturing, express couriers, warehouses, special economic zones, and hotels and conference centres.

Special zones may cover incentives such as tax concessions, more flexible labour laws and the encouragement of foreign direct investment. Benefits accruing from these zones include faster economic growth, large-scale employment, and the infusion of modern technology.

The aero zone is the area surrounding the airport city, which spans a further five kilometres. It has a mix of land use, such as business and industrial parks, manufacturing and logistics companies, tourist attractions, sport and recreation facilities, medical facilities and residential areas.

Requirements
The requirements, according to the aerotropolis concept, include at least 4,5km runways, an adequate control tower with air navigation facilities, and enough land for aircraft hangers and maintenance operations.

Other requirements include a large number of spaces for planes to park, a helipad, bulk utility services, and rescue and fire fighting facilities, which should be of international standards. Adequate facilities should be given for international and domestic passenger and cargo terminals, high-quality road accessibility, enough public transport services and up to 20 000 car parking bays.

The land surrounding Lanseria is not built up and this makes it a favourable option for expansion, says Msezana. The City already owns some portions of the land; the airport is already defined and has an international licence. The expansion will make air traffic less complicated and easier than if a new airport was built.

Land northeast of Lanseria is protected open land, the Diepsloot Nature Reserve, while the airport itself is in line with the environmental regulations. This means that development will require fewer environmental investigations.

"Any future expansion will comply with the existing environmental legislation," Msezana emphasises.

Using this option at Lanseria will provide the necessary infrastructure and flight connections to serve demand.

Development plans of the airport at present involve a runway upgrade, a low cost airline terminal building, parking extensions for planes, a hanger for the aircraft maintenance organisation, upgrading navigation aids and a new control tower.

Until recently, nearly all scheduled passenger traffic in Gauteng passed through OR Tambo International Airport. Lanseria has operated specific regional scheduled routes and towards the end of 2007 began scheduled domestic services, says Msezana.

With growth in demand, which reflects the rate of the growth of the local economy, the attractiveness expanding an existing airport will stimulate the origin and destinations of passengers, he adds.

It needs to be noted that there is a number of processes that will need be undertaken regarding this economic development initiative, with stakeholder engagement with the existing airport land owners and investors being the primary ones, as well as intergovernmental engagement.

Source: http://www.joburg.org.za/content/view/3882/266/

Glad to hear that council have shelved the plans to build another airport from scratch, HLA and JNB could (and should) work really well together.

This must have been an 'exciting' flight to be on...

-----------------

South African B738 near Johannesburg on May 27th 2009, depressurization at 9000 feet

By Simon Hradecky,
created Friday, May 29th 2009 09:06Z,
last updated Friday, May 29th 2009 09:11Z

A South African Airways Boeing 737-800, flight SA-575 from Johannesburg to Durban (South Africa), had already climbed to 9000 feet on departure from Johannesburg, when the crew heard a loud bang followed by air rushing noise as the cabin depressurized. The crew declared emergency and decided to return to Johannesburg, where the aircraft landed safely.

Maintenance determined, that one of the door seals had failed and repaired the door. The airplane was able to resume the flight and reached Durban with a delay of about 3 hours.

http://avherald.com/h?article=41a59ead

I wonder how if it was passenger laden.

-------------

Yup Kulula, 1time and Mango fill that niche. And SAA has some cheapies too if you look in time.
ps Berlin is my favourite city too. Anywhere! Even surpassing my love of Joburg, maybe. :lol: I'm lucky to currently be living in Berlin, and it's impossible to just not get enough of the city.

I flew Friday afternoon from ORTIA to Polokwane and back on Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised about the service with Airlink.

The flight to Polokwane (Pietersburg) was on a BAE 146 with 97 seats and the flight was about 70% full. The return flight was on the Jetstream 41 with its 29 seats but only about 60% full.

The new terminal building in Polokwane is beautiful and about the same size a Lanseria terminal but bigger than Bloemfontein. I saw it was opened in October 2008 and will serve this city well during the coming years.

Just a pity I did not take a camera as I was attending a funeral of a employee.

^^ sadly the joburg route is its only connection

Has anyone ever wondered why Emirates want to start flying to Durban? Just look at what Dubai has done for themselves... Do you think they think Durban is the place to be in the future? What about the investors wanting to invest in Durban? I think we are going to see a lot of international flights coming the Durban now, Emirates made the move and everyone will follow soon.

I think the new airport will do amazing things for Durban, even if it takes a few years to do so. It's important to remember that KSIA is not just a passenger airport; it's Africa's first and only tradezone / tradeport too. It will be largely export-driven and Emirates probably wants to get a foot in early. When the fresh produce exports start, I'm sure a likely export market is going to be the Middle East.

We should also remember that SA's new Minister of Transport, Sbu Ndebele, is the immediate ex-premier of KZN who was a driving force behind KSIA. I am sure he is going to do everything within his power to push KSIA.

In terms of business sense, it makes more sense to take off / land at sea level vs. altitude. I thus feel that in the long run, while OTR will continue to serve as SA's main airport, KSIA is likely to attract international flights. We should bear in mind that we posted a story a few months back quoting the head of Quantas saying that they were considering using Durbs as a hub because of the baggage theft at ORT, which is affecting their bottom line. Add up the vastly cheaper fuel costs at sea level (which make a big difference when you consider planes use thousands of litres of fuel per flight), the advantage of sea-level vs altitude (being able to take off with bigger loads), the trade port angle, KZN's massive all-year round tourism potential, and I can't see how KSIA can't grow in the years ahead. Smart airlines like Emirates obviously recognise these factors and are pitching their tent from now.

Tomorrow 2 June is quite a big day for changes at JNB in terms of flights, so if anyone's out there, go have a look and report!

Arik Air starts their daily flight, landing 04:50, departing 13:45, first regular A340-500 service at JNB, just Thai and maybe Emirates used them before as replacements. Would anyone have info on the bookings so far, being such short time notice I can't think this first week or two having very good loads?

Delta starts their nonstop flights to Atlanta with their 777-200LR, also first time the LR type is used to SA, landing around 17:00.

Zambezi Airlines is supposed to start their flights to Lusaka and Ndola...not sure if it's still going ahead?

Seems Air Botswana is also introducing Francistown and Kasane flights again from this week.

Also this week is British Airways' increase from 14 to 19 weekly flights, with the first day of 3 flights being yesterday, 31 May. Look out for Wednesday morning with the first dailight BA flight from JNB to LHR departing 07:45.

After this we have to wait again for exciting news, probably next will be confirmed schedules of TAM to Sao Paulo, hopefully soon!

Just checked SAA schedules...and they are sending a daily A340-200 and A340-300 to durban from JNB from the 17 june till the 22 of june to accommodate the numbers of tourists coming to durban for the british lions game... ill be in johannesburg that week so if any durbanites can get to the airport(ill post time closer to the time) please take photos as i think it will be the last time us durbanites see such large aircraft at the current airport before moving to KSIA

There is confirmation that 1 south african was on the air france flight 447 from rio to paris that went missing over the atlantic... very very sad news about the flight

Well they say he/she was an "ex south african" but never the less they have ties to us. Yes it is very sad news & I think everyone will like to have closure on what happened, esp the families involved.

Thought I would cross-post these from the OR Tambo thread - http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=475356&page=20

They show the proposed midfield terminal. Pretty nifty in my opinion, and will do a great job of facilitating the growth of ORTIA and reflecting the growth of Gauteng and of course the whole of SA.

http://www.naco.nl/assets/images/Projects/AF/ZA_JNB_JIA-stills-0000-cropped.jpg

http://www.naco.nl/assets/images/Projects/AF/ZA_JNB_JIA-stills-0003-cropped.jpg

http://www.naco.nl/assets/cache/9e18b6d33081dd0b73208db1067f2b33.pageCache.jpg

Whoa! That's huuuugggee!!!

has a hongers feel to it, that long corridor down the middle

It's rather large indeed.

That seems more than double the size of the current terminals altogether, probably very long-term planning, isn't this more like a 2050 or something plan? It does look like a structure than can be done in several phases, up to 5 phases maybe? Also is that 4 runways then altogether?

Just checked SAA schedules...and they are sending a daily A340-200 and A340-300 to durban from JNB from the 17 june till the 22 of june to accommodate the numbers of tourists coming to durban for the british lions game... ill be in johannesburg that week so if any durbanites can get to the airport(ill post time closer to the time) please take photos as i think it will be the last time us durbanites see such large aircraft at the current airport before moving to KSIA

See 26 June they are sending 7 A340 flights on JNB-CPT, 5 -200s and 2 -600s! Combination of Lions Test Match, ConfedCup Final and school holidays starting?

Just checked SAA schedules...and they are sending a daily A340-200 and A340-300 to durban from JNB from the 17 june till the 22 of june to accommodate the numbers of tourists coming to durban for the british lions game... ill be in johannesburg that week so if any durbanites can get to the airport(ill post time closer to the time) please take photos as i think it will be the last time us durbanites see such large aircraft at the current airport before moving to KSIA

See 26 June they are sending 7 A340 flights on JNB-CPT, 5 -200s and 2 -600s! Combination of Lions Test Match, ConfedCup Final and school holidays starting?

This is obviously how SAA should be able to accommodate passengers during world cup...long haul aircraft doing the domestic runs

ACSA's stats for April. Still declines but slightly better than previous months this year.

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6812/acsamonthcopy.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=acsamonthcopy.jpg)

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6993/acsayearcopy.jpg (http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=acsayearcopy.jpg)

CT domestic figure seems odd. How could Durban and Joburg have dropped so much, but CT has not when the majority of travel is between these three markets, therefore big drops in Dbn and Jhb would have a knock on effect in CT...

^^ Think it may have to do with the larger stability of the JNB-CPT route as a huge business travel route. Almost all companies with HQ's in either Joburg or Cape Town, have massive offices in the other city. When one looks at George, Bloem, Kimberley... virtually every other domestic destination, the drop in PAX is huge, thus they make up the balance of the major domestic drop for JNB. With Cape Town not having numerous flights to smaller airports, but the majority of its PAX being to DBN and JNB to begin with, its shielded from the massive slump in domestic travel associated with other destinations.

Also, which may be a factor... Cape Town, eventhough it lost some critical direct European routes this year and the economic downturn, still had a satisfactory tourism season. But, those international passengers need to come from somewhere... so probably arrived through JNB then traveled domestic to CPT... that may have also kept domestic PAX higher.

There has been a massive drop in capacity and subsequently traffic by Airlink on the CPT-GRJ route, 1 of the 2 BAe146 flights downgraded to ERJ again, together with 3 other weekly flights removed. Also for April and May one of the other usual ERJ flights were also downgraded to a J-41, but back now. This meant a drop of about 100 seats per day in each direction, which had huge effect on GRJ, and slightly on CPT.

On the other hand remember the main thing keeping CPT at lower declines than JNB is KULULA at LANSERIA...there is up to 6 flights a day on the route, so it is counted at CPT only. Also 1Time had huge increase in flights to DUR and PLZ from CPT.

Btw, can anyone confirm that Kulula have painted a 5th aircraft in it's colours, I saw one a few days ago that looked different from the "Jetsetter, Camo, Cow or Zippy" jets.

Affirmative. ZS-OAM has been painted in Europcar branding to promote Imperial's re-branding.

Can anyone give us the actual fleet size and make up of the carriers in SA? something i have been looking for for awhile, and i dont trust wiki

^^^^from www.airfleets.net

Kulula: 1 x Boeing 737-200
3 x Boeing 737-400

1time: 1 x McDonell Douglas MD-81
3 x McDonell Douglas MD-82
3 x McDonell Douglas MD-83
2 x McDonell Douglas MD-87

Mango: 4 x Boeing 737-800

SAA: 11 x Airbus A319
1 x Boeing 737-200 (cargo)
1 x Boeing 737-300 (cargo)
17 x Boeing 737-800
6 x Airbus A340-200
6 x Airbus A340-300
9 x Airbus A340-600
2 x Boeing 747-400

SA Airlink: 4 x Avro RJ
4 x Bae 146
5 x Embraer 135

SA Express: 1 x CRJ 100
11 x CRJ 200
2 x CRJ 700
5 x Dash 8-300
2 x Dash 8-400

British Airways (comair): 5 x Boeing 737-200
9 x Boeing 737-300
7 x Boeing 737-400

Interlink airlines: 2 x Boeing 737-200
1 x Embraer 120 Brasilia

CT domestic figure seems odd. How could Durban and Joburg have dropped so much, but CT has not when the majority of travel is between these three markets, therefore big drops in Dbn and Jhb would have a knock on effect in CT...

CPT had a larger drop in domestic pax for April 2008 so the 2009 figure balances that. Also because of its geographical location pax don't have the option of driving so domestic traffic is likely to be more stable.

From airliners.net some TAM charter flights from Sao Paulo and Recife for the Confed Cup:

June 11
JJ9354 REC 0200 (0500 UTC) JNB 1100 (1400 UTC)

June 22
JJ9443 JNB 0900 (1200 UTC) GIG 1910 (2210 UTC)

June 29
JJ9443 JNB 0900 (1200 UTC) GIG 1910 (2210 UTC)

what aircraft are they using?

Pic of the new kulula "europcar" livery
courtesy of henkybaby on airliners.net

http://pic40.picturetrail.com/VOL359/11064950/22146648/366642175.jpg

cool :)

Thanks for the fleet info...are there ay plans by the carriers to modernise their fleets?

Some of the Kulula aircraft is possibly classified under BA/Comair, Kulula has definately got 5 737-400s that is painted in it's colours, then there is another 1 or 2 in white. There is also a -300 in white that is juggled between Kulula and BA.
As for 1Time I believe the last one should read MD87, although it was said earlier also that they're adding/added another 2.

Regarding the TAM charters, it should make us realise that if they're sending 3 charters for this 2 week little ConfedCup tournament, then just imagine what is going to be needed for World Cup.
On airliners.net there is this discussion on about flights regarding the world cup, makes for very good analysis. With the world cup a year away, and also with bookings for that period starting to open up soon (especially for the airlines that have bookings 350 days ahead open, like SAA), I believe we should start a seperate thread for the Aviation World Cup. Afterall without aviation the world cup's success wouldn't really be much, the main way for most foreign spectators to get here and around!

Regarding the TAM charters, it should make us realise that if they're sending 3 charters for this 2 week little ConfedCup tournament, then just imagine what is going to be needed for World Cup.
On airliners.net there is this discussion on about flights regarding the world cup, makes for very good analysis. With the world cup a year away, and also with bookings for that period starting to open up soon (especially for the airlines that have bookings 350 days ahead open, like SAA), I believe we should start a seperate thread for the Aviation World Cup. Afterall without aviation the world cup's success wouldn't really be much, the main way for most foreign spectators to get here and around!

i agree, aviation during the WC is going to be a hectic time, so i think it warrants its own thread... would be cool to discuss the different airlines plans for the WC, any new aircraft andairlines heading our way, and speculation into which new airlines we could possibly see permanently in SA post 2010

Just a bit of disappointing news doing the rounds, DL have announced the indefinate suspenison of their ATL-CPT service as part of a 20% reduction in int'l capacity.

Source: http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/

Apparently the new non-stop ATL-JNB service is doing well.

^^ FFFFFFFFFFFU&&&&&&&&%%%%%%%%KKKKKKKK!!! :moods: No other way to put it!
Isn't that a bit of a stupid move, considering Americans bought the most international tickets for the FIFA 2010 WC games. Giving up landing rights now, in the worst economic crisis in living memory and in the Cape's quiet season seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face come next year when demand will be at historic highs.

Anyways, I'm pissed off, I'm going to try to get over it...

Babara Hogan is in hot water as she has said, "Loss making state enterprises may need to be sold off..." I say good!!! Let SAA run itself as a true company, not as an airline begging the taxpayer for money year on year. Maybe then we'll see proper competition in our skies for once in South Africa's history.

Well it's indefinately suspended, so it might be not too long before they change their minds, Delta has lately changed their minds shortly after decisions...especially re African flights (Nairobi, Luanda, Abuja, Monrovia).
Apparently they have worded it so and planned carefully to not lose their traffic rights, so they're holding on to it!
Just strange that you would stop flights before the busier time in Cape Town. Although it must be remembered that American and Canadian tourists is pretty constant throughout the year, actually quite good during June, July, August because they're much bigger on the Safari issues.
I guess the problem is probably up front, couldn't really make it work in the business class cabin.
Hopefully they'll resume before the World Cup, I believe they will!

A chnace SA will fly to Melbourne or Sydney?

Even onwards to AKL?

As a tag on to their (SA) existing PER service it seems like a no brainer, yet no-one (SA or QF) seems keen on the route. The only thing I can think of is bilateral and/or codeshare restrictions that are preventing MEL/BNE/AKL from being served at present.

SA might be considering SYD again in the future, if things start to look better with them financially...which might still take quite a while...
For MEL I'd much rather like to see V Australia start their service from MEL instead of SYD, if needed still via PER. Not QF or SA would really consider MEL, unless QF is receiving long-range aircraft with capacity under 250seats, it might work a few times a week. MEL is also the shortest flight to New Zealand, so it might be a good connection point for flights to AKL/WLG/CHC.
AKL itself might come on the cards for NZ in the future, they have been mentioning starting flights to SA when they receive the 787s, still a long way though. Unfortunately there isn't much connection beyond AKL, so it is almost purely O&D. Otherwise they might be interested in AKL-PER-JNB (or DUR), but then would want traffic rights for PER-JNB/DUR.

Few bits and pieces from Airlink and SAX:
Airlink increasing JNB-Beira to daily, starting a Saturday flight from 4 July, this route has gone from 4 to 7 in the last few months.
They're also adding a Saturday flight to both Harare and Lusaka. Lusaka route seems to be doing good, also using the AvroRJ on Friday and Sunday afternoons.

SAX seems to have put the planned Maun flights on the ice for now, seems like some sort of bilateral problem.
It also seems that SAX have quietly removed 1 daily flight from JNB-GBE route. Would have thought it might be too much since SAA start their own 2 daily A319 flights also on the route.

SA might be considering SYD again in the future, if things start to look better with them financially...which might still take quite a while...
For MEL I'd much rather like to see V Australia start their service from MEL instead of SYD, if needed still via PER. Not QF or SA would really consider MEL, unless QF is receiving long-range aircraft with capacity under 250seats, it might work a few times a week. MEL is also the shortest flight to New Zealand, so it might be a good connection point for flights to AKL/WLG/CHC.
AKL itself might come on the cards for NZ in the future, they have been mentioning starting flights to SA when they receive the 787s, still a long way though. Unfortunately there isn't much connection beyond AKL, so it is almost purely O&D. Otherwise they might be interested in AKL-PER-JNB (or DUR), but then would want traffic rights for PER-JNB/DUR.
Couldn't they go DUR-AKL direct? JNB obviously won't be within range of the aircraft due to altitude, but a trans-Antarctic route could work for a DUR-AKL connection?

Couldn't they go DUR-AKL direct? JNB obviously won't be within range of the aircraft due to altitude, but a trans-Antarctic route could work for a DUR-AKL connection?

from what i remember annman... it is possible to do a direct AKL- DUR since it is trans antarctic. i think i direct route connecting NZ and SA would be very profitable... the 2 power houses of rugby and dont forget the amount of expats living in NZ,

^^ Did a bit of research - here's some distances:

DUR-AKL: 11,678km (until KSIA opens)
DUR-AKL: 11,704km (when KSIA opens)
CPT-AKL: 11,756km
JNB-AKL: 12,178km

The 787-9 has a range of 14,800km – 15,750km if Wikipedia is to be believed - that means that both CPT and DUR are possibilities (due to altitude, JNB is unlikely). I recall reading somewhere that NZ is actually more interested in CPT than DUR, but I can't find a source backing this up.

OK - don't read too much into what I said about NZ being more interested in CPT: it was on the Wikipedia entry on NZ, no sources resulted in it being removed. Personally, I believe either is equally likely as the ~55km difference is pretty much negligible - DUR does have a bit of an advantage in that the connection to JNB is shorter, although CPT may have more demand from a pax point of view.

^^ Could be an interesting code-share route to Europe. If they do that and offer Cape Town stay-overs, could be lucrative from a holiday travel point-of-view.

What's interesting to is the heading to AKL out of CPT is just east of due south, flight path passing 500km to the west of Marion Island, continuing over Queen Maud Land of Antarctica, passing 1000km west of McMurdo, Antarctica... then passing over most of the South Island landing at Auckland from the south-south-west.

COOL!!! :cheers:

it would be an awesome flight with regards to scenery

C/O www.flyairlink.com:

Airlink seamlessy connects kruger and livingstone
June 2009
Following an enthusiastic response from research conducted at the Travel Indaba amongst the trade, Airlink has pleasure in confirming that it will begin operating a new route from Kruger to Livingston as of 17 August 2009. Airlink’s service will operate directly from Nelspruit Kruger to Livingstone. Initially Airlink will operate this service on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, with the intention to grow frequency to correspond with demand.

The new route will allow travelers to enjoy the convenience of a direct flight between two of Africa’s most sought after destinations. This will avoid the current need for Kruger travelers to stay overnight or connect in JHB prior to flying to Livingstone. The opportunity is then for travelers to enjoy a game drive and breakfast at their bush lodge before traveling to Livingstone and enjoying, on the same day, an evening sunset cruise on the Zambesi. The return travelers, Livingstone/Kruger, can enjoy a walk to the falls in the morning, breakfast and midmorning activities before traveling to Kruger to enjoy dinner and first night in the bush. Travelers will be able to get to bed early in order to be ready for an early game drive the next day.

As the leisure market moves towards its peak season both locally and internationally, Tour operators will welcome the idea to promote a combination of fly in packages including Cape Town, JHB or Durban to Kruger and Livingstone ensuring travelers receive the best of both and can experience both the Kruger Park and Livingstone.

Herewith the new timetable effective 17 August 2009:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Depart Nelspruit Kruger 11h55 arrive Livingstone 13h50
Depart Livingstone 14h20 arrive Nelspruit Kruger 16h45

Full flight schedule and fares available at http://www.flyairlink.com or contact your local travel agent or tour operator.

Good news to see expansion from an airport with some potential for a lot more traffic!

good to see that SAA are about to post a R813 million profit for the last year... thats amazing coz just in 2007 they posted a R800 million loss!!!

but a problem has arisen as airbus are holding them to their order of 20 Airbus A320 which SAA said they cancelled but airbus said they didnt, apparently Airbus will Charge them something like R1.5 Billion cancellation fee now so it seeems the profit is all worth nothing...

Its amazing how when one moron who runs SAA leaves the business becomes profitable again

I don't know why SAA doesn't just convert the order to A340/330's. It does need more long haul aircraft afterall.

Nice to see Airlink expanding regional connections. Just had a look at their online route map, someone better tell them Livingstone is not northeast of Lusaka!

Good news on the Kruger/Livingstone route, hopefully it signals a change of the regional hub from Joburg thinking. The livingstone route is one of a few that would work from Durban and CT

The SAA/Airbus issue is a bit strange. SAA is about to issue a fleet renewal requisition and Airbus should win the deal fairly easily so you would think they would use the A320 money as a possible deposit (as mentioned by Greg above).

Airlink is using the little Jetstream 41 planes on the MQP-LVI route, so being very cautious at first...good approach I guess. Would be great if this works out. Hopefully Airlink will be in a position to start CPT-LVI flights as well, the ERJs should work on the route?

I don't know why SAA doesn't just convert the order to A340/330's. It does need more long haul aircraft afterall.

I agree. I feel they should order 8 A330-200s to replace the 6 A340-200s they've got and then add 1 or 2 A340-600s as well.

On the other hand they must be thinking about replacing the 737-800s as their leases are soon expiring, if they just need to replace the 21 737s (including Mango's 4) I think they should stick to Airbus, get 20 A320s and another 3 or 4 A319s.

Apparently they're now looking at a lease deal with Airbus for aircraft for domestic and regional routes.

Airport stats for May. At least we into single figure decreases I guess.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/6812/acsamonthcopy.jpg (http://img26.imageshack.us/i/acsamonthcopy.jpg/)


And the last 12 months...

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/6993/acsayearcopy.jpg (http://img200.imageshack.us/i/acsayearcopy.jpg/)

Hopefully these figures will improve slightly next month, because of the confed cup.

^^ Will boost Bloem especially

I managed to get to DIA today to catch the A340-300 coming in... unfortuantely i turned my camera on to find that the battery was dead so had to settle with cellphone camera, so excuse the quality...

the airport was absolutely CRAZY with hundreds maybe thousands of British and irish lions supporters arriving

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu288/juzzy1601/cellphone034-1.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu288/juzzy1601/cellphone043.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu288/juzzy1601/cellphone045.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu288/juzzy1601/cellphone050.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu288/juzzy1601/cellphone051.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu288/juzzy1601/cellphone060.jpg

South African Airways builds capacity in West Africa, strengthens Perth and Buenos Aires

JOHANNESBURG. 18 June 2009. South African Airways (SAA) has added capacity to its African route network in keeping with its African strategy, as well as having strengthened its network with additional flights on routes to Perth, Australia and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The changes to the airline’s schedule are in line with demand trends in the current economic environment. Off peak flights on several domestic and international routes have been reduced in keeping with a decline in demand.
However, SAA will continue to take up new opportunities in line with its plans to concentrate future growth on its extensive African route network. As such, its presence in West Africa has been strengthened and additional frequencies have been added on routes to both Australia and Argentina.
Further increasing its footprint in West Africa, three extra flights have been added to the popular West African destination of Lagos, Nigeria. This increases the number of frequencies on this route from four to seven per week. On four of these days, SAA will use a Boeing 747-400 on this route due to increased demand as well as the requirement for a first class service on this route.
Also in West Africa, flights to Douala, Cameroon, will increase from two to three per week.
On the route to Perth, Australia, SAA is increasing the number of flights from five to seven per week; while flights from Johannesburg to Buenos Aires, Argentina, will increase from two to three per week.
SAA will continue to closely monitor market demand and look for new market opportunities going forward. Further expansion of flight frequencies throughout Africa is expected to take place later this year.

Issued by SAA Group Corporate Affairs

So we know about the Buenos Aires, Douala and Perth increases by now.
Good news that they're at last going to daily on Lagos as well, probably wouldn't have if Arik Air didn't start daily flights as well. Although I've checked a few months ahead, in August I find it to be 6 weekly flights, is the 7th only coming in line later?
Also Luanda seems to be heading for daily as well, 6 at the moment.
Both Lagos and Luanda is all flights scheduled with 747-400s though.

The only route I found that was really slashed now, is JNB-Vic Falls...a year ago they were still 9 weekly flights with A319(120 seaters)...now there is only 2 weekly flights with Airlink's AvroRJ aircraft (83 seaters).
JNB-Livingstone switched to mainline A319 service a few months ago, and seems to be going strong with daily flights.

Quick question: with the talk of SAA fleet renewal, does anyone know if Comair has similar plans? In particular, if SAA decides to replace their 737-800s, would it be possible for Comair to acquire a few of them or get leases on them should they want to? It can't be all that economical for them to keep on operating those 737-200s...

I was also wondering about that, because if I understand correct the 737-800s is owned by Safair. Where would they go, both Kulula/BAComair and 1Time might be interested in taking some of them.
One other question remains, is it possible that SAA can renew the leases, or take out new shorter term leases?

Delta pulls out of CT
Article By: Travel Industry Review
Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:17

Delta Airlines, the only US carrier operating to South Africa, will suspend its Cape Town-Dakar-Atlanta service following the August 29 departure. The last Atlanta-originating flight will depart on August 28.

Affected passengers will be rerouted, mainly on Delta's flights out of Johannesburg. The airline describes the suspension as "temporary" due to the current economic crisis resulting in unsatisfactory loads.

However, Sales Director for Africa, the Middle East and India, Jimmy Eichelgruen, said Delta "remains committed to the South African market" and to offering direct service between the US and South Africa.

He added that the airline's route from Johannesburg to Atlanta via Dakar "remained strong" and had not suffered the same decline in loads as the Cape Town service.

Cape Town is not alone. In line with other carriers' schedule reductions, addressing the economic situation, Delta is to reduce its total international schedules by 15 percent.

Delta will continue to offer its daily Johannesburg-Atlanta service and has enhanced the route with the introduction of a Boeing 777-200LR, with 35 additional seats and lie-flat business class seats.

http://travel.iafrica.com/flights/1749260.htm

Can someone please explain to me what a low cost airline is in south africa

A flight from DUR-JNB return is cheaper on SAA than flying either of the 3 LCC's
it is totally ridiculous and personally i think something should be done, there is no way they can call themselves low cost airlines, overseas the low cost airlines have flights from as little as R50 one way?

if anyone has any idea into how these airlines operate and why they are more expensive than a national airline...please elaborate

When were you trying to book? how long in advance? was it anytime during the next two weeks? If it was dont expect any cheap seats as all planes are jam packed everywhere you go.

Also those "R50" flights overseas dont exist. You still have to add masses of taxes onto that price.

Also SAA is champ at undercutting at times to maintain marketshare

i was looking for august... with regards to overseas, i flew from london to edinburgh return for 10 pounds which was R150 at the time (fully inclusive)

I just think that if your going to call yourself a low cost airline then you should be way cheaper than a national carrier (who give you a free meal, and all the flexibility)

^^ surprised by that edinburgh price. My flights over there generally cost 30-40 pounds one way

Here in Europe if for example you travel Lyon (FRA)-Rome (ITA) it will cost from 30€ one way, if you take a bagage +11€, so it will stay for 40€ which is 520R this in either Easyjet or Ryanair, which are the better known. But sometimes you can find even cheaper prices.
How much is the price in south africa's low cost airlines for example in April from JHB to Durban and from Durban to Capetown ?

JNB to DUR return at the moment starts at around R900, From DUR to CPT R1400

that to me is a lot of money when compared to other nations and to SAA

Yes, indeed it is expensive, so you can't really call that lowcost flights

JNB to DUR return at the moment starts at around R900, From DUR to CPT R1400

that to me is a lot of money when compared to other nations and to SAA

i booked return yesterday for a flight tomorow to jhb from durban return and it cost R558.

at the end of the day they will charge whatever you as the public let them get away with. simple

Yes, indeed it is expensive, so you can't really call that lowcost flights

How is R900 return expensive when you say R525 one way nice rome?

i booked return yesterday for a flight tomorow to jhb from durban return and it cost R558.

at the end of the day they will charge whatever you as the public let them get away with. simple

you must have it a luck coz ive been looking everywhere and just cant seem to find cheap tickets, i just really wish that low cost carriers were far cheaper than SAA in order to validate their name as an LCC otherwise its just not worth the hassle that the LCC's give you regarding flexibility

Got an email today for some really cheap 1Time specials.

will have a look on their website...thanx greg

Luckily our carriers don't charge you yet for every thing extra. Booked flights on Ryanair for someone else last week LGW-Dublin and LGW-Aberdeen, both short flights. Prices varied between 5 and 14 pounds one-way.
BUT then you can choose to either for online or airport check-in, per bag checked in, in the end worked out about 90 pounds return!

But I do agree on the subject that they're not all living up to their supposedly names. See 1Time has released schedules for after October last week...for december flights on JNB-GRJ is starting from R1349 one-way!!! Kulula started pretty much with the same fare when they opened bookings. Ofcourse it is high season and it's their time to make money, but really charging almost 200% more than usual is absolutely extortion. And in the end it is limiting the Garden Route's high season. By the time the airlines fill the seats at these prices, it is too late to open up extra flights. Ofcourse they don't need to charge R500 one-way, but at least under R1000 (just as starting price) would look much more attractive. With all the latest price-fixing scandals, this very much looks dodgy as well...?

^^ george is a problem, i always rule the area out as a destination due to the high cost in getting there

Got an email today for some really cheap 1Time specials.

Yip, got that too. Mango are also running a couple of similar specials at the moment. About R6 difference between them.

2010 World Cup: South Africa, Emirates Get Ready

Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 4:36 pm
Press Release: Emirates Airlines See following news release with attached photo issued for Emirates Airline:
News Release, 30 June 2009
South Africa And Emirates Get Ready For 2010 World Cup
When the party finally finished at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park Stadium after the Confederations Cup soccer final last weekend, the countdown to the 2010 FIFA World Cup kick-off in South Africa truly started.
The sole focus of the teams is now on giving fans the chance to see their heroes on football’s biggest stage and with the qualification process already well under way, many, including New Zealand, are within touching distance of making the finals which start on June 11 next year.
Emirates, as an Official FIFA Partner, is offering supporters from its network of over 100 destinations in more than 60 countries, a complete FIFA World Cup™ travel solution, with its direct flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town, and daily flights to Durban being added from October 1 this year. All four daily Emirates flights from New Zealand to Dubai will connect with the services to South Africa.
Emirates’three gateways in South Africa will play host to a total of 30 matches throughout the tournament, including the opening game and the final in Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium.
As FIFA’s Global Tour Operator, Emirates will be offering fans from around the globe the chance to purchase world-class, seamless travel packages that will include flights, accommodation, ground transportation and match tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.
It is a further example of the airline’s commitment to football and desire to help its passengers obtain gold-dust tickets to the biggest party on the sporting calendar.
Maurice Flanagan, Executive Vice Chairman, Emirates Airline and Group, said: “We are proud to be part of this amazing event and have put great effort into providing trip-of-a-lifetime packages for our passengers and Skywards members.
“For many football fans, going to the World Cup is a childhood fantasy and we are delighted to have a package on offer that will ensure their trip is the unforgettable experience they always dreamed of.”
The Emirates FIFA World Cup™ Tour Packages will go on sale later this year and a further announcement will be made detailing the packages on offer.

^^ surely they will add more flights and A380s all round?

^^ surely they will add more flights and A380s all round?

the plan is to bring the A380 end november/december... but emirates have now deferred orders for the A380 this year so who knows how that will impact on the introduction of the A380... extra flights??? not so sure DIA was introduced as to increase the SA routes before the WC, but they have mentioned that an A330-200 will probably be doing domestic rounds in SA during WC for the players as emirates are a major sponsor

Can someone please cross post the above article by Mo into the WC aviation thread in the shebeen

They will have to upscale capacity into the country for the WC. Thats why i am saying i will not be surprised if A380's fly all routes into SA for them during the WC.

There will be alot of "jumbos" flying between cities during the WC. Fanatics (the Australian tour group that is setting up their WC HQ in Durban) will be bringing in 2 charter 747's to fly their spectators from Durban and CT around the country to matches and then back to those cities in the evenings.

If that is just one company representing a smaller touring party country, can you imagine what the English, German, Brasilian, Italian, Spanish and Japanese will need?

They will have to upscale capacity into the country for the WC. Thats why i am saying i will not be surprised if A380's fly all routes into SA for them during the WC.

There will be alot of "jumbos" flying between cities during the WC. Fanatics (the Australian tour group that is setting up their WC HQ in Durban) will be bringing in 2 charter 747's to fly their spectators from Durban and CT around the country to matches and then back to those cities in the evenings.

If that is just one company representing a smaller touring party country, can you imagine what the English, German, Brasilian, Italian, Spanish and Japanese will need?

but it is almost impossible for emirates to bring the a380 on our routes as they dont have enough of them (only 5) which they use on their london (5 x daily) toronto, bangkok, sydney, paris, Rome and auckland routes...

They will almost definately change aircraft for KSIA from A330-200 to either the A340-300 or even better and more likely the 777-300, in which case there will be an increase in seats, but best case we could see KSIA and CTIA becoming 2 x daily with JNB upgrading 1 flight to A380...

other airlines such as TAM could have up to 3 x daily flights into SA. Surely Delta will re instate CT maybe changing aircraft from 767 to 747-400. alitalia will be here, qantas will probably have the A380 flying here by then which will be to KSIA due to the route changes for WC, Air france will probably have the A380 here, lufthansa will have the A380 but not sure if they will send it here, maybe just an increase in flights into JNB.

British airways have already increased flights into JNB to 3 x daily using the 747-400 and are looking for more slots, they definitely wont send the A380 as they wont have it by then, and if by luck they managed to get it early it would be used on the JFK route

^^ Emirates can swop the planes they use on those other routes for 2010. Purely as PR they need to have their flagship planes flying into SA for the WC, it would be bad for them if they didnt

Emirates recieves one A380 per month for the next 4 years . based on that they will have a bunch more of them and even if they only get half that amount , they will have another 6 at least.

the defered planes were the second batch and most were the big people movers(all economy) for use on the Indian routes . Besides these Emirates recieves a 777 every month as well (most 300ER planes).

For pure publicity (Emirates being the biggest media whores on the planet) I would immagine they would use the 380 on some of the flights into SA

Emirates recieves one A380 per month for the next 4 years . based on that they will have a bunch more of them and even if they only get half that amount , they will have another 6 at least.

the defered planes were the second batch and most were the big people movers(all economy) for use on the Indian routes . Besides these Emirates recieves a 777 every month as well (most 300ER planes).

For pure publicity (Emirates being the biggest media whores on the planet) I would immagine they would use the 380 on some of the flights into SA

Thats impossible since Airbus are only delivering 14 A380's this year to emirates, singapore Airlines, qantas, Air france, Lufthansa and China Southern

http://www.aero.de/Emirates_verlangsamt_Wachstum_der_A380-Flotte_8678.htm

this article is in german, but it states that emirates will only recieve 2 more A380's this year followed by 6 in 2010, definitely not 1 a month...

im not saying that they wont send it to south africa coz im 100% sure they will bring it to JNB, my source has mentioned that end november or december will be the most probable time it will be introduced in time for our summer.

here is the list of A380 delivery schedule...

http://plane.spottingworld.com/A380_production_list

well thats what we were told in Dubai so go figure.

so like I said 6 more planes (2 in 2009 plus 6 in 2010 so say half is 3) gives them 5 extra making what 11 so they will have enough to serve JHB if needed.

At Lufthansa, we definitely don't anticipate receiving our first A380 this year. :ohno:

CTIA cant handle the A380 yet.

CTIA cant handle the A380 yet.

So will we be able to handle it by next year or the end of this year then Mo?

So will we be able to handle it by next year or the end of this year then Mo?

I just assumed that it will not be able to handle it. Maybe I'm wrong.
Aren't there runway requirements etc.?

I just assumed that it will not be able to handle it. Maybe I'm wrong.
Aren't there runway requirements etc.?

runway requirements are fine except the orientation of the runway, the last time i checked, apparently the problem is the winds and along with the direction of the runway, makes it dangerous for the Aircraft... oh ja and the fact that theres lack of diversions in close proximity in case of emergency.... thats what was the reason the last time i was told

^^ Regarding the lack of diversions, there is AFB Overberg (I believe a 1time flight to George had to make an emergency landing there earlier this year) - not sure if it's A380 compatible though.

EDIT: Here's the story (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090415051218234C869315) about the 1time diversion to AFB Overberg. Wikipedia states that the longest of the two runways is 3115m long.

no i dont think it is A380 ready, the composition of the runway materials is very complex in order to accommodate the aircraft otherwise the runway will crack and fall apart under the huge pressure of the aircraft... heathrow had to undergo massive alterations to its runways and aprons to be able to handle the A380

How is R900 return expensive when you say R525 one way nice rome?

Because Johannesburg - Durban is 497km, while Lyon - Rome is 1180km

From my source at emirates in dubai...

The introduction of the A380 to JNB is due for the first quarter of 2010 replacing the Boeing 777-300ER on EK 763/764...

not just for the world cup but on a permanent basis!

I just spent the weekend in Joburg, flew in and out of Lanseria and I cant say enough good things about this airport. If you are headed to Joburg this airport is a dream. We landed at 19.28 and were driving out the parking area at 19.42. Our luggage was going around the conveyor before we got inside. Staff are friendly and there are no crowds. The restaurant is excellent and the departure lounge offers free tea and coffee. Free, when did you last get something free?

10 out of 10, what a pleasure.

I just spent the weekend in Joburg, flew in and out of Lanseria and I cant say enough good things about this airport. If you are headed to Joburg this airport is a dream. We landed at 19.28 and were driving out the parking area at 19.42. Our luggage was going around the conveyor before we got inside. Staff are friendly and there are no crowds. The restaurant is excellent and the departure lounge offers free tea and coffee. Free, when did you last get something free?

10 out of 10, what a pleasure.

Lanseria is an amazing experience, I fear however that it may become a victim of its own success. Kulula have slowly been increasing the number of flights they offer out of HLA, while 1Time are chomping at the bit to start service there as well. With the Cradle City development on the cards HLA may expand beyond its current convenience airport to a fully fledged regional/domestic airport (which I think Jo'burg needs). That is still a good few years away so in the mean time make hay while the sun shines!!!

While i agree that it is a great airport when things work, when things go wrong they go very wrong there. I use it alot and love it, but i have had a few 4 hour delays. There is also something wrong with the runway navigation system that doesnt allow planes in land in bad weather. Things like that need to b be sorted out before growth. Other than that love it, and when all the roadworks leading from it to joburg are done it will b a much quicker journey in

I hope this becomes a more regular practice...

---------------------------

Zuma catches SAA flight to Jo'burg
Jul 07 2009 09:37

President Jacob Zuma caught a South African Airways flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg on Sunday night for the first time since being elected president.

Zuma had flown in his presidential jet Inkwazi from an African Union summit in Libya on Saturday to Durban for the Durban July. He then flew to Cape Town for the meeting, said the Times.

The website quoted Kodwa as saying the president had "confidence" in SAA and wanted to be where "ordinary South Africans are”.

The Times quoted Kodwa as saying that Zuma would fly with the national carrier when "time allows".

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-07-zuma-catches-saa-flight-to-joburg

^^ with other people on board? is that not a serious safety risk??

he probably had the entire business class section to himself and his bodyguards

I wonder if he complained about the krap food and the limited in flight entertainmnet

So he flew in the presidential jet from Libya to Durban and then to Cape Town...so it is standing in CPT? Or did also fly back to Pretoria, empty? If so, then what's the idea really?

I hope this becomes a more regular practice...

---------------------------

Zuma catches SAA flight to Jo'burg
Jul 07 2009 09:37

President Jacob Zuma caught a South African Airways flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg on Sunday night for the first time since being elected president.

Zuma had flown in his presidential jet Inkwazi from an African Union summit in Libya on Saturday to Durban for the Durban July. He then flew to Cape Town for the meeting, said the Times.

The website quoted Kodwa as saying the president had "confidence" in SAA and wanted to be where "ordinary South Africans are”.

The Times quoted Kodwa as saying that Zuma would fly with the national carrier when "time allows".

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-07-zuma-catches-saa-flight-to-joburg

Wow. What a favour he did the world.

CTIA will not be accommodating the A380 "for now" (8 July 09)

As stated below

As stated below
what

CTIA will not be accommodating the A380 "for now" (8 July 09)

we've mentioned it and spoken about it previously

we've mentioned it and spoken about it previously
I can see its been spoken about; Just confirming it. I don't actually think CTIA needs to accommodate the airbus for sometime, as long as ORTIA can accommodate it for now, its ok.

I can see its been spoken about; Just confirming it. I don't actually think CTIA needs to accommodate the airbus for sometime, as long as ORTIA can accommodate it for now, its ok.

the only problem with ORTIA is the altitude and that the runway is not long enough for the aircraft to take off at max weight and volume

Am I the only one excited that Pretoria is getting an upgrade to their airport? It will be great to fly direct to Pretoria, without having to fly to ORT and take the long ride to Pretoria from there.

------------------

New flights from Wonderboom
JULIUS BAUMANN Published: 2009/07/08 07:07:11 AM

WONDERBOOM Airport, north of Pretoria, is due to introduce scheduled flights to Cape Town and Durban from October by an airline that has not yet been named, but is believed to be Interlink Airlines.

The Tshwane City Council, which owns the airport, is spending R165,5m upgrading Wonderboom’s infrastructure in preparation for the new service. The development includes expanding the apron to provide parking for more and larger aircraft and putting a luggage carousel in place.

New weather equipment is also scheduled to be installed, while new fire-fighting equipment is on order, with the first fire engine already having been delivered.

Plans for a scheduled service were first mooted as far back as 2007 when the city council called for expressions of interest. This was followed by a call for more a more detailed business plan, with Interlink emerging as the preferred carrier.

However, Hendrick Kleynhans, the project leader at the airport, refused to confirm the chosen airline, saying the council was still negotiating a service-level agreement with the selected carrier.

He said the intention was to create a secondary airport for the Pretoria market in the way Lanseria catered for the West Rand of Johannesburg. “For many people living in Pretoria, OR Tambo International Airport is too far away and congested, and we will offer a viable alternative. We estimate that between 25%-30% of the passengers that use OR Tambo live in Pretoria.”

Kleynhans said the airport would be able to cope with 450 departing and 400 incoming passengers an hour once the upgrade was complete.


Future plans include expanding the runway to allow the airport to handle larger aircraft such as a Boeing 737-800, a project that is likely to cost upwards of R600m. “That includes buying up additional property, the widening and lengthening of the runway, taxiways and the security fencing,” said Kleynhans.

Next year, Wonderboom is likely to see a surge in traffic during the Soccer World Cup. Many airlines are likely to use the airport to park aircraft, with OR Tambo unable to cope with the volume of idle aircraft during the first few week of the tournament.

The airport is also likely to be used by Fifa for its own aircraft and other charter operators. Wonderboom had also built taxi and bus facilities in preparation for next year.

baumannj@bdfm.co.za


http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=75144

Good news for pretoria. I would prefer to see a proper airline offering services. Interlink are a small operation offering minimal flights currently. If they are using this to expand them all the best to them, lets see how this progresses

sounds interesting...Good for Pretoria
Next step is to stop making people first fly to ORTIA before flying out or into SA

Wish them the best of luck - would be great for Pretoria if this works.

Its a good idea, well done to Interlink for seeing the gap in the market. Maybe kulula et al will follow suit...

Just read on PPrune that apparently Interair are looking for a B767-200 crew which means they must be looking for a B767-200 as well. For use on their JNB-LOS route maybe? All uncofirmed at this stage.

Great news for Pretoria, yes. But I agree with Dysan, I'd rather want to see one of the other carriers such as kulula.com or 1Time come onboard. Interlink, in my opinion, doesn't mean much. If this works out, it will be awesome. But if they can't operate even a B738 at this stage... eish, they'd have to make a plan ASAP!

^^ Having re-read the article it would appear as if Interlink are trying to put an agreement in place similar to the one Kulula have with Lanseria (lower taxes, operational charges etc.). If Interlink do end up winning the tender (so to speak) then they need to spend some big $$$ on marketing. At the moment all of their stuff (website, ticket offices at airports) are rubbish. Don't know about a B738, I'd imagine that the services would be flown with the B732s Interlink currently operates.

Some news filtering through the wires:

South African Airways (SAA) is close to finalising a new deal with Airbus that will recommit the carrier to 15 A320s originally ordered in 2002, and could include additional A320s plus potentially more A340s.

SAA late last year issued requests for proposals to Airbus and Boeing for a wide mix of new narrowbodies and widebodies. But industry sources say SAA has decided against accepting any of the offers, which would have allowed the carrier to renew its entire 50-plus aircraft fleet by 2020. Instead SAA in recent months has been in exclusive negotiations with Airbus over settling a long-running dispute by re-visiting and expanding its original 2002 order.

SAA in 2002 ordered 15 A320s for delivery from 2010 as well as 11 A319s and 15 A340s, which have already been delivered. In 2004 SAA said it was cancelling the A320 part of the order, but Airbus never acknowledged the cancellation and continued to keep the order in its books.

Sources believe the new deal will ensure the 17 737-800s operated by SAA and the four 737-800s operated by SAA low-cost subsidiary Mango will eventually be replaced by A320s. They say the deal will likely include about 20 A320s and potentially six A340s.

An SAA spokeswoman confirms that "SAA and Airbus are currently in negotiations and good progress is being made on reaching an agreement". But she wouldn't rule out a future acquisition of Boeing narrowbodies, saying "SAA will continue operating a mixed narrowbody fleet until such a time that a decision is made on a long-term fleet".

The spokeswoman wouldn't say when the agreement with Airbus is expected to be finalised but one source says board approval will likely occur at SAA's annual general meeting in September.

Mango CEO Nico Bezuidenhout confirms a transition to an all A320 fleet is the most likely outcome for the low-cost carrier. Mango, which subleases all four of its 737-800s from SAA, had been considering taking more 737-800s from SAA in the event its parent ordered A320s and switched to an all-Airbus narrowbody fleet. But Bezuidenhout now says Mango prefers to be part of the new Airbus purchase.

"If SAA goes with Airbus we'd be the only 737-800 operator in southern Africa. From a maintenance, spares and training standpoint it doesn't make sense," he says.

While Mango is not currently looking for additional aircraft, Bezuidenhout says the carrier plans to expand its fleet to 10 aircraft within three to five years. He adds Mango, which is participating in the evaluation of new aircraft from "a group context", hopes there is an outcome soon because leases on Mango's 737-800s start expiring in 2010.

Airbus and SAA have not yet decided on delivery slots for the new A320s but sources say short-term lease extensions for some of the 21 737-800s at SAA and Mango are likely. Most of these leases come up for renewal in 2011 and 2012 - or 10 years after the aircraft, which were ordered in early 2000, were delivered.

Sources say while Airbus never cancelled SAA's A320 order because it never received proper notification, it has re-allocated the carrier's original delivery slots. But given the current downturn, there could be opportunity for SAA to take over A320 slots from other carriers.

The soon-to-be-completed deal with Airbus is a blow to Boeing, which was hoping to convert SAA or at least Mango into an all-Boeing narrowbody operator. But Airbus clearly had an inside track because SAA was potentially liable for 1.5 billion rand ($183 million) in unpaid pre-delivery payments (PDPs) if it formally cancelled its A320 order. These PDPs were listed as "potential challenges" in an SAA presentation to South Africa's parliament last month and Bezuidenhout confirms the liability from the original Airbus order has been a factor in the new aircraft evaluation process.

SAA also began looking at new widebodies last year to meet a mix of short and long-term requirements. SAA had said it required additional widebodies for growth from 2010, replacements for its six leased A340-200s from 2012 or 2013 and next-generation widebodies - either 787s or A350s - from about 2015.

But the SAA spokeswoman says the expansion plan the carrier announced last May, which envisioned the acquisition of growth aircraft from as early as 2009, has been put on hold. "Market conditions at that time indicated that we would need extra aircraft to operate additional routes planned, but due to the economic downturn this was not realized," she says.

SAA also confirms it has deferred evaluation of the 787 and A350. "SAA's longer term fleet plan will be undertaken in line with network requirements and the restructuring plan. This will be based on a competition with manufacturers to be undertaken in due course."

But sources say for the A340-200 replacement requirement Airbus now has on the table six new A340-500/600s, which could become part of the A320 settlement. SAA already operates nine A340-600s plus six A340-300Es. While the -300s and -600s were all delivered earlier this decade the A340-200s are all now at least 15 years old according to Flight's ACAS database.

Source: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/07/08/329414/saa-to-recommit-to-a320-acquisition.html

In spite of the obvious cancellation issue that swung the decision in Airbus' favour I still think this is a very prudent decision by the airline in the current market etc. The A340-500/600 series is a good performer in niche conditions (JNB) and Airbus would be only to happy to sell a few more at a discount. Switching over to an all Boeing short haul fleet makes no sense, unless they opt for an all Boeing fleet eventually.

With SAA who knows, an order for 50 IL96s wouldn't surprise me...

^^ Like I mentioned earlier, I wonder if the other local carriers would be interested in those 738s if SAA isn't going to renew the leases on them...

^^ Like I mentioned earlier, I wonder if the other local carriers would be interested in those 738s if SAA isn't going to renew the leases on them...

Someone (I think GRJPlanes) mentioned here a while ago that a few of the B738s SAA operate are owned by Safair, so a local operator may not be that unrealistic. That being said, Safair will probably lease them to foreign airlines because they can afford to lease new gen. aircraft.

^^ but surely the LCC's here need to upscale the quality of their planes? arent new laws imminent on noise and pollution levels? the 732's would fall way short on these

The A340-500/600 series is a good performer in niche conditions (JNB)

What do you mean by this?

What do you mean by this?

The obvious issue is JNB's generally hot and high location. B777s can easily operate out of JNB but are more susceptible to weight restrictions than the A340s - things like tyre rotation speed limits, engine out on takeoff all limt your take off weight. ETOPS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS for those who arent sure) is another issue in favour of the A340s. There is a lot of water between JNB and Australia, Asia and South America, certain parts of Africa may as well be water on the European runs.

All things considered the B777 is a superior product to the A340 (in my opinion), but the A340 does have its niche markets. Hope this clears things up :)

^^ but surely the LCC's here need to upscale the quality of their planes? arent new laws imminent on noise and pollution levels? the 732's would fall way short on these

From a South African LCC point of view upscaling to a B737-400 say, which is a 20yr old model, qualifies as a fleet replacement. The noise issue will end up costing airlines more to operate older generation aircaft, but not prevent them from doing so. Privately run LCC's in RSA cannot afford to purchase 10-20 A320s out of the box, and leasing them from ILFC or any other major aviation lease corporation ends up with insane balloon payments towards the of contract (look at SAA's B737-800s and B747-400s, Virgin Blue in Australia are also getting stung with their repayments on their leases as well apparently).

Vaguely related to aviation...

I'm gonna be spending the day at the Virgina Airshow on saturday, I will try and spam this thread with the best shots I take at the Airshow afterwards :)

The obvious issue is JNB's generally hot and high location. B777s can easily operate out of JNB but are more susceptible to weight restrictions than the A340s - things like tyre rotation speed limits, engine out on takeoff all limt your take off weight. ETOPS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS for those who arent sure) is another issue in favour of the A340s. There is a lot of water between JNB and Australia, Asia and South America, certain parts of Africa may as well be water on the European runs.

All things considered the B777 is a superior product to the A340 (in my opinion), but the A340 does have its niche markets. Hope this clears things up :)

Perfect, thanks! :-)

Regarding the possible Interlink flights from Wonderboom...what I'd like to understand is that they say currently Wonderboom can not handle 737-800s...but if they can't handle those, then surely they can't handle 737-200s as well...fully loaded that is, unless they have to operate with restrictions. That's all Interlink has at the moment, they had Embraer 120s, those would be possible to operate at Wonderboom...but surely not to CPT though!

With both this and the story about InterAir planning to add a 767-200 and starting flights to Lagos, I believe both these two airlines can operate much better and offer niche markets and routes if only they had some proper investment, management and marketing.
InterAir can become a good regional airline offering flights to West and East Africa as well as Indian Ocean and Meditteranean (years ago they talked about flying to Cyprus, I guess because the boss is Cypriot...maybe a once weekly 767-200 flight can work I think...?). They just need proper aircraft, more direct flights, not all these destinations which is reached after stopping in Brazzaville then Cotonou and 17 other places. 1 Weekly direct flights to all their current destinations would be so much better (all those other cities in West Africa).
As for Interlink I also believe if they can set up at Wonderboom a good base and build from there, they are still the one I think that can be positioned to give Airlink and SA Express competition on thinner routes throughout the country...once again with the correct equipment. The best option in my opinion is for them to get something in the 50 to 90 seater segment that can operate out of Wonderboom for now, with at least 2 flights a day to both CPT and DUR and then eventually 30 to 50 seater prop-segment to do thinner routes like to JNB or the Wonderboom to BFN, RCB, MQP, KIM, PBZ and also DUR-BFN, DUR-ELS, CPT-GRJ etc.

But hey, no shame in dreaming...

It seems that Bellview has been the casualty as expected on the JNB-LOS route, they're suspending service from the end of this month. Say they'll look into coming back in 2010. Ofcourse Arik Air daily (schedule changing to later arrival 05:50 and earlier departure out of JNB 11:40 from August) and SAA almost daily and also InterAir plans for the route, things were sure to quickly heat up on this route.
Also seems that RwandAir is adding a 5th flight from August, planning to increase to daily before year-end.

Re the SAA order rumour:
Currently SAA and Mango together have 21 737-800s. Now they say SAA might recommit to 15 A320s, somewhere someone said might add more to be around 20...that's still less than the 738s. BUT capacity wise one needs to have more A320s than 737-800s. To match capacity needs to be as follow:
SAA 737-800s = 157 seats x 17 = 2669
Mango 738s = 189 seats x 4 = 756 (correct me if I'm wrong, can be 183?)

A320 2-class layout = about 140 seats...SAA need 19 = 2660 seats roughly
A320 LCC layout = about 160 ...Mango need 5 = 800 seats roughly

So if only ordering A320s and with an eye on little expansion SAA/Mango need to order at least 24 A320s. Unless adding some other A320 family members (more A319s or some A321s).

The A340 order is probably okay, would be safe to add 6 A340-600s, at least capacity increase, but maybe a total of 8 or 10 more would be good if they want to expand in the next 3 to 5 years. As long as they get the A340-200s away!!!

We'll just have to wait and see, hopefully soon!

I dont know why SAA dont look at the A330-200/300 to replace some of there older A346 and A340-200/300. they are even better fuel economy wise and it seems the rest of the world are getting rid of their A340's... i just get this feeling that SAA are going to turn into an airline that will be utilizing old, out of date, expensive aircraft... I just hope they keep up with the times and start looking at orders for A350 or B777/B787

Johannesburg: ORT International Airport:
145 Routes

Cape Town: Cape Town International Airport:
45 Routes

Durban: Durban International Airport
22 Routes

See the maps at the following link:http://openflights.org/#

Seems that the Interair B767 might be a little more than a rumour:

http://www.pprune.org/african-aviation/380685-767-200-capt-f-o-s-jhb.html

Fingers crossed!

any durbanites here the sonic boom from the mirage today? i literally fell to the ground, thinking it was a shooting at my work,

Def heard it :)

I was at the airshow... took about 5 mins from when he went Mach +1 till we heard it..

I have 1200+ photos to go through but there was an event today that I think will blow everyones socks off, I will post the photo as soon as I've got them all onto my machine

As promised...

Post #1 of many..

The event that I think has never happened at any other airshow ever before...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2455/3710397041_cc1116b9fa.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/toxicbunny/3710397041/)

Post #2 :)

(unprocessed so far, except a bit of exposure tinkering)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3527/3710462851_c9dfa942e5.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/toxicbunny/3710462851/)



http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2526/3711275414_f106d09589.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/toxicbunny/3711275414/)

This trick ALWAYS blows my mind.. I love seeing it

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2542/3710445701_75b85aba0b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/toxicbunny/3710445701/)

Stunning pics!!!!!! Thanks for sharing. I was near the Umhlanga lighthhouse when the SAA / smaller jets did their flypass. It looked amazing even from there.

The continuation of the SAA flypast... Think it would have an AMAZING advert for SAA

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2496/3711733389_b6ee8ff6a3.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/toxicbunny/3711733389/)

and the Good Year Eagles

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3434/3711756315_c79d221ed6.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/toxicbunny/3711756315/)

Wow that plane procession looked awesome. Never saw that. Was that early on in the day?

Nah... The plane procession was at roughly 3:30pm... :)

And I sacrificied much for my shots... I got to the airfield at roughly 7am to ensure a good spot....

^^Good initiative, better than mine! in bed till 10am babalaas

luckily I was awake and in my senses for the boom!

was hoping to find a video of the sound barrier breaker on youtube. but managed to find this

RORrOJieTys

Although Singapore Airlines' passenger numbers on the route between South Africa and Singapore dropped by 30 percent this year due to the economic downturn, Benjamin Chan, its new general manager in South Africa, expects the situation to change for the better in a few months.

Airlines bringing passengers to South Africa for the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup from Australia, Japan and South Korea gave a foretaste of the larger numbers expected to come to this country next year.

Until the start of the economic downturn late last year, airlines' flights arrived in this country with heavy passenger loads. South Africans travelled the route on business and leisure, while half the passenger numbers were arriving from Asian countries including China, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.

Chan said yesterday that the nonstop flights between Cape Town and Singapore, which were changed in April to include a refuelling stop in Johannesburg, would be restored in October to meet rising demand.

Business Report
http://www.flyafrica.info/forums/showthread.php?t=20507

Singapore Airlines chief upbeat about 2010 tourists
July 14, 2009

By AUDREY D’ANGELO

Although Singapore Airlines' passenger numbers on the route between South Africa and Singapore dropped by 30 percent this year due to the economic downturn, Benjamin Chan, its new general manager in South Africa, expects the situation to change for the better in a few months.

Airlines bringing passengers to South Africa for the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup from Australia, Japan and South Korea gave a foretaste of the larger numbers expected to come to this country next year.

Until the start of the economic downturn late last year, airlines' flights arrived in this country with heavy passenger loads. South Africans travelled the route on business and leisure, while half the passenger numbers were arriving from Asian countries including China, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.

Chan said yesterday that the nonstop flights between Cape Town and Singapore, which were changed in April to include a refuelling stop in Johannesburg, would be restored in October to meet rising demand.

Singapore, an important business and leisure destination and a gateway to other destinations in the Far East, Australia and New Zealand is a gap in SAA's international route network. Singapore Airlines and SAA are both members of the international Star Alliance. The airline also carries SAA passengers to its home airport under a codeshare arrangement.


Singapore Airlines was the launch customer for the giant Airbus A380 and now has nine of the huge planes in its fleet - more than any other airline. So far it has used them on its services to Sydney, London, Paris and Tokyo. Yesterday it extended their use to its service between Singapore and another important business destination, Hong Kong, to which the airline has five connecting flights a day.

In addition to carrying passengers from South Africa, Chan said about 55 percent of its passengers to Johannesburg and Cape Town were from Australia and Asian countries, including China. However, many of its Chinese passengers were going on to other parts of Africa, mainly Angola, Mozambique and Kenya.

Business Report
http://www.flyafrica.info/forums/showthread.php?t=20507

There is rising demand between Cape Town and Singapore? Really?

There is rising demand between Cape Town and Singapore? Really?

Yup there is..there has been a rising number of africans coming to find opportunities in Singapore. They are attracted by low crime and well paying jobs. The latter is not entirely true, as many become exploited by their employees.

Singaporeans are also waking up to the idea of south africa as a travel destination, lured by a favourable exchange rate, cheap prices, beautiful scenery and Safaris.

oh and also the SA gov has been taking lessons on building low cost houses from Singapore, not that, it makes any difference to tourism numbers.

Emirates to offer complete World Cup travel solution
14 July 2009 http://www.easier.com/myads/images/259424-3.jpg

Brazil posted a warning shot to the superpowers of soccer last month as they began the countdown to FIFA World Cup 2010 by showing remarkable resolve to triumph in the Confederations Cup final.

With just 346 days to go, the clock is now ticking fast towards the Greatest Show On Earth and the Samba stars now look destined to light up the tournament after their thrilling display against the USA.

Emirates, as an Official FIFA Partner, is offering supporters from its network of over 100 destinations in more than 60 countries, a complete FIFA World Cup travel solution, with direct flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town, and daily flights to Durban from 1st October.

Emirates’ three gateways in South Africa will play host to a total of 30 matches throughout the tournament, including the opening game and the final in Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium.

As FIFA’s Global Tour Operator, Emirates will be offering fans from around the globe the chance to purchase world-class, seamless travel packages that will include flights, accommodation, ground transportation and match tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

It is a further example of the airline’s commitment to football and desire to help its passengers obtain gold-dust tickets to the biggest party on the sporting calendar.

Maurice Flanagan, Executive Vice Chairman, Emirates Airline & Group, said: “We are proud to be part of this amazing event and have put great effort into providing trip-of-a-lifetime packages for our passengers and Skywards members.

“For many football fans, going to the World Cup is a childhood fantasy and we are delighted to have a package on offer that will ensure their trip is the unforgettable experience they always dreamed of.”

The Emirates FIFA World Cup Tour Packages will go on sale later this year and a further announcement will be made detailing the packages on offer.

Brazil's TAM have announced that they will not be launching flights to SA anymore as planned, but might start in 2010.

Source:TNW

Brazil's TAM have announced that they will not be launching flights to SA anymore as planned, but might start in 2010.

Source:TNW

gosh all that hype by them...what an anticlimax, cant compete with SAA i guess

Johannesburg handled 18.4 million passengers in 2008; domestic demand now down 15-20%
17th July 2009

South African Airways resumed flights from Johannesburg to Buenos Aires in April. Johannesburg handles over half of all the country’s air passengers.

Airport traffic in South Africa is dominated by O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg which handles over half of all the country’s air passengers. In 2008 the airport handled around 18.4 million passengers, a reduction of 4.4% over the previous year. In the first five months of 2009 passenger numbers are down a further 11.1%, though in April and May the decline was less than 9%.

Domestic traffic in South Africa has fallen this year to a level somewhere between that achieved in 2005 and 2006, around 15-20% down on the peak achieved during 2007. During this time Nationwide, a local airline, collapsed.

International demand declining but not as quickly

International traffic was still growing as recently as last July, but since then year-on-year demand has been down around 5% (though in February and March it was closer to 12%).

In the financial year to March 2009 Johannesburg traffic was down 8.1% to 17.9 million, while Cape Town saw traffic drop by 7.3% to 7.8 million passengers. Traffic at South Africa’s third busiest airport of Durban also fell during the last financial year by 10.4% to 4.3 million. For the most recent months of April and May Durban traffic was down 9.2% and 3.8% respectively.

Work is progressing on the new Durban airport at La Mercy which should be operational in early 2010 well in time for the country’s staging of the FIFA World Cup.

http://www.anna.aero/2009/07/17/johannesburg-handled-184-million-passengers-in-2008/

Air India, SAA sign code-share agreement

National air-carrier, Air India, and South African Airways (SAA), have signed a code-share agreement, which they said would improve travel options between their respective countries.

The agreement allows Air India passengers to code-share on SAA's route between Johannesburg and Mumbai, as well as on the domestic sectors between Johannesburg-Durban and Johannesburg-Cape Town, a press release issued said.

SAA, in return, will code-share on Air India's domestic operations between Mumbai and Delhi as well as operations between Bangalore, Chennai, Trivandrum and Hyderabad to Mumbai, the release said.

The partnership was effective from June 18 and allows for improved and expanded connectivity between each other's networks.

"Adding Air India as a code-share partner will provide our passengers with better and more convenient connections to key destinations in India. We are looking forward to working closely with Air India to offer further travel benefits as well as seamless access to even more cities overtime," SAA's

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Air-India--SAA-sign-code-share-agreement/490737

Traffic stats for June. Positive impact from Confed cup and Lions tour. Nice to see growth at Durbs and Bloem!

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/6812/acsamonthcopy.jpg (http://img30.imageshack.us/i/acsamonthcopy.jpg/)

http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/6993/acsayearcopy.jpg (http://img374.imageshack.us/i/acsayearcopy.jpg/)

that is quite a big increase for DUR in comparison to other airports and to previous months...signs of times to come for durbs now that the english had a good taste of what durban has too offer

Etihad Airways is to start flights to Cape Town as of 30 September. It seems that it will be just an extension of the JNB flights, but no indication yet of frequency. Probably not daily, I guess 3 of the 7 weekly flights to continue on.

Never understood those continue on flights