jimyvr

both BA and SAA used to fly out of Durban for long-haul

747-444

Do tell?

jimyvr

via Johannesburg, of course.

juzzy

word is that SAA will now acquire 7 A332's instead of the original 6. And that SA will start JNB-PEK with A343/6

Cheetah_SA

Will that be direct? It would be a flight of about 14.5 hours by my calculations. So quite doable with the 343.

The route also seems plausible given the number of Chinese/African ventures under way in Southern Africa.

KIXJNB

Agree. This would feed nicely into SAA's growing African network.

juzzy

yup,non stop! the demand is there and it seems the only intercontinental route that SA are looking at for the moment. Also in the plans are nonstop flights from JNB-JFK to compete with the hugely succesful Delta nonstop flight to ATL

on another note SA want to create a hub at Accra to allow onward connections to African routes but on SA metal.

dysan1

I have flown on the Emirates flight from Durban 5 times now for various different routings, mainly to the east, but also twice to Europe and there are two major problems with it.

1) Its not an ideal flight, journey time wise, for European travel. It makes the journey far too long. But its great for travel to the east.

2) The current plane used is a pile of junk.

These two issues will stop alot of people using the route to Europe, so a massive number of people still fly to the dreaded Joburg to connect out of the country. These Emirates flights have been 100% full every time i have flown them, so there is clearly a good market they are tapping into.

BUT there is massive overspill.

SAA will however never offer a Durban route before any of their competitors to the UK or Europe for the simple fact that they make a good R1500-R2000 extra out you by making you connect through Johannesburg and that is money they need.

Any airline that doesnt operate in the SA realm domestically could offer it without hampering their operation. So count SAA and BA out, it makes more sense for them to continually rip us off for the DUR-JNB connection.

However, if Virgin or one of the other european carriers that dont have a domestic arm were clever, they could offer the Durban direct flight and make a large share steal. There are 4million people living in the city, plus the other 7million within 2 hours drive. Yes the vast majority are not travellers at all, but there is a market that is basically fuelling the DUR-JNB domestic route to the detriment of the consumer.

A Durban to Europe connection will happen within the next two years, but it will not be BA or SAA. They will likely only react when they start feeling the pinch locally, as i dont know anyone who likes going via Joburg

thijsseh

Sorry, dysan1 but that is not true. When I fly CPT/LHR I pay the same as CPT/JNB/LHR, assuming I book into the same fare bucket (and it must obviously be on one ticket). The only (relatively minor) difference is the airport tax for the JNB stop.

(I obviously agree with you about wanting to avoid JNB etc.)

dysan1

My comparison is based on the R1500 difference between DUR-LHR and JNB-LHR.

capetonian

You missed MH to Buenos Aires and to Kuala Lumpur.

However, I have a surprise for you. LX will start nonstop ZRH-CPT vv. flights apparently at the end of 2012. Not sure which equipment they will use (one of the new A330's which are being delivered this year?).

Source: a Swiss captain I know and Swiss newspaper articles.

thijsseh

Now THAT would be nice . But a long wait until the end of 2012 . Any idea if this will be a seasonal service?

capetonian

The way I understood it it would be a year-round service (presumably not daily). LX will be getting a bunch of A330's end 2011/2012. Apparently, these are earmarked for services to PEK, SIN and CPT.

I can imagine a year-round service being viable if they feed the service from their group, i.e. LH, OS, BMI, LOT, Brussels. SA won't like it, though.

thijsseh

Tough! I am a self-proclaimed SA fan, but a bit of competition will do them no harm. And an extra way to avoid JNB out of CPT is always welcome!

dysan1

Personally cant see LX flying daily to Cape Town and would struggle to understand how they could do it all year round even on a few flights a week. We have seen so many routes into Cape Town disappear over the past two years and those which have stayed, contrary to the press releases they love to overly hype, have actually decresed their route capacity. One only needs to look at the falling international passenger numbers into Cape Town to see this...