Originally Posted by
evanb
CAPA did some analysis when SAA closed the route and showed that SAA's yields on CPT-LHR-CPT was half that of JNB-PER-JNB and a third less than JNB-LOS-JNB, JNB-ACC-JNB and JNB-BOM-JNB. Given how BOM particularly was burning money it's hard to see that CPT-LHR-CPT was a money spinner given, especially when taking into account the UK APD and aircraft ground time at LHR.
SAA have not used LHR for connections with the exception of AC and some UA for many years. The UK APD and visa rules made it useless for connections to Europe and Shengen area and they pushed their own North American traffic through JFK and IAD. It's a much higher cost option than their other hubs.
Visa rules yes, but I don't see how APD has anything to do with this. APD is just a (quite hight) 'airport tax', and is even higher when travelling in any cabin higher than the cheapest (i.e. premium economy attracts the same level of APD as first class). It is charged directly by the airline to the passenger. And there is no APD on connections, ensuring that travel to other European countries (and non-European ones for that matter) is not affected by this.