South African Airways (SAA) is pleased to confirm that the International Air Services Council (IASC) has ratified that SAA retains all its historical route traffic rights, following SAA’s voluntary relinquishing of the number of frequencies on the destinations it is not currently servicing.

In accordance with legislated and prescribed procedures SAA meets with the IASC on a quarterly basis to review and justify its route network plan and traffic rights to destinations it is not yet flying to.

Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Professor John Lamola, says “SAA, as a buoyant national airline, has an important enabling role in the South African economy. Those routes and frequencies that are not part of SAA’s medium-term plans will progressively be released to the Council for the benefit of the industry.”

In the coming weeks the airline will be announcing the addition of more routes to its growing network. SAA will be introducing flights to Blantyre and Lilongwe in Malawi, Windhoek in Namibia, and Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe before the start of the festive season. 

Together with increased frequencies to Accra in Ghana, Cape Town, Durban, Harare in Zimbabwe, Lusaka in Zambia, Mauritius and Kinshasa in the DRC, these changes represent the second phase of SAA’s post-Covid restart operations which commenced thirteen months ago.

The airline is on course to re-enter some of its traditional regional markets and enter new routes which remain underserved.  Plans are also underway to launch SAA’s first post re-start intercontinental route during the first quarter of the new year.