cmcbugg

That's the end of First class then I guess :-( not seen any dates yet.

SAA to embark on airline restructuring plan

main points -

The airliner said part of its fleet -- one owned and five leased B747-400 aircraft which are expensive to operate -- would be grounded.

SAA also announced that it would close the Paris route, which has been losing money, in October.

capetonian

Sound like a logical move. Now that they won't expand they have spare capacity on 340's so getting rid of the more expensive 747-400's makes sense.

A pity about the Paris route. I found that one to have good award availability in C.

AJLondon

I'll miss that F cabin on the 747s.

SEAUAKID

I'll miss the extra legroom in upper deck economy section.

Cheetah_SA

Well, now we know why: it was losing money presumably through lack of demand!
Me too. *sniff*

I heard this on the main news tonight and was quite shocked. Apart from the sentimental/status value of dropping the 747's they are axing a 3rd of management staff. It seems they really mean business this time!

AJLondon

Is there a specific date already set for the demise of the 747s and thus implicitly First Class?

capetonian

I would not be surprised if the CPT-FRA route goes seasonal in future. In the past days loads have been less than 100 PAXe - for a 340-600!

Cheetah_SA

But since they're going ahead with JNB-MUC they must be doing well in that market, surely?

Cheetah_SA

duplicate, sorry

capetonian

I would assume so. Flights from JNB-Germany do usually have very high loadfactors. CPT-Germany is another story, though, a very seasonal route with little business traffic.

Cheetah_SA

D'oh! I missed the significance of CPT vs. JNB.

I hate when they can't make routes work ex CPT (and lord knows they've tried many over the years). That schlep up to JNB before we can get anywhere! The irony is that LHR is massively popular but they can't get any more slots there.

Cheetah_SA

I've not seen one mentioned. But I guess it's a case of "hurry while stocks last!". (But beware the equipment substitutions. )

capetonian

That would be a case for the A380. SAA did think about it but in the current situation I don't think that will be feasible for years to come.

I find it odd that SAA thinks that flights to LHR would not be feasible using a daylight flight from SA to LHR but they are feasible to Germany. There would be some slots available for this.

The main problem with routes ex CPT is a market that is too small at least for higher yield passengers. Granted there is a lot of leisure traffic but there is quite some competition for that market as well. As long as LTU and QR to name a few undercut SAAs prices by a significant margin they are going to battle in a price-sensitive market.

A solution would be to fly CPT-JNB-XXX and allow domestic passengers to fly CPT-JNB vv. However, they would have to figure out a deal with customs and immigrations. They have tried that numerous times but the authorities have been too inflexible for this (apparently the main problem would be handluggage which could be transferred between passengers).

Corpt

With a group of six of us booked to fly LHR/JNB in F in December, I hope they don't pull the 747 before the end of the year. It would be a shame to lose the chance of what would be almost a private cabin for our party. It's the others (up to 5) in the cabin I feel sorry for if we do go ahead!!

capetonian

We're in SA, everything takes a bit of time (usually).