South African Airways Presents Latest Developments At Event In Athens

South African Airways (SAA) latest news and major developments in 2013 were presented to Greek travel agents in Athens during the airline’s recent Vasilopita (Greek New Year’s cake) cutting ceremony.

Non-stop Johannesburg-New York Flight To Resume

During the ceremony, Dinos Frantzeskakis, managing director of Discover The World Greece & Cyprus, SAA’s general sales agent in Greece, informed that the airline was resuming its popular non-stop flights between Johannesburg, South Africa, and New York, USA. The non-stop flight will resume next month on 9 March, nearly three weeks ahead of its original schedule of 28 March.

SAA’s pita cutting ceremony included a raffle for two round trip tickets to Johannesburg or Cape Town. Pantelis Fytilis of Argo Travel (center) was the lucky winner. He is pictured with Discover the World Greece & Cyprus’ Dinos Frantzeskakis (managing director) and Electra Giouri (sales manager Greece and Cypurs).

New code share agreement

SAA recently launched a new code share agreement with Virgin Australia, one of Australia’s largest domestic airlines. The new partnership offers SAA customers expanded access across Australia to domestic destinations such as Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide.

4-Star Skytrax ranking for 12th year

SAA was awarded the 4-Star Airline ranking for 2014 by Skytrax, the independent, global airline rating organization, for the 12th year in a row. SAA remains the only carrier on the African continent to achieve this high level 4-Star Airline rating.

Network news

On 15 August 2013, SAA increased frequencies to Abidjan, Accra, Mumbai and Perth, while serving passengers from London to Cape Town via Johannesburg. August also was the month the airline introduced a new check-in baggage policy in response to varying customer requirements in each of its markets.

On 17 January 2013, SAA launched flights to two more destinations on the African continent from Johannesburg to Kigali in Rwanda and onwards to Bujumbura in Burundi.

Newly developed mobile applications

Last year, SAA launched two new mobile applications for iOs or Android mobile phones and tablets so passengers can view their booking information, check-in for a flight, find the status of their checked-in luggage, and view information on lounges, flights and destinations.