SAA
FlySAA
Book a Flight on FlySAA
Use the flight comparison tool on the left. Simply enter where you are flying from and to. Choose the date(s) you want to fly out and return, and then click “Search for flights”. The tool will compare all airlines flying that route on those dates. It will then list the airlines by the cheapest. It might not be Mango airlines that turns out to be the cheapest flight, but they will be included in all domestic flight comparisons.
South African Airways (flysaa.com) is the national air carrier in South Africa which flies to five domestic destinations and thirty seven international destinations across Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania, with a fleet of fifty airplanes.
The airline began flying in 1934 after the government took over the assets and liabilities of Union Airways which had been operating since 1929 which had the contract to fly airmail from the Union Castle steamships in Cape Town Harbour to the major centers in South Africa, and which carried its first passenger from Cape Town to East London in 1929. South African Airways originally only served Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg with their fleet of eleven Junkers and entered the international market during the 1930ís with flights to Kenya and Uganda. It was only in 1945 that South African Airways began their first intercontinental service, known as the Springbok Service, following a route from Palmietfontein ñ Nairobi ñ Khartoum ñ Cairo – Castel Benito – Hurn Bournemouth which took three days.
South African Airways was the first airline outside of the United Kingdom to operate a pure jetliner, the De Havilland Comet, in 1953. The airlines international expansion continued with a service to Perth Australia being added in 1957 and the Johannesburg to New York route, via Rio de Janeiro, being added in 1969.
Due to the universal disapproval of the apartheid regime during the 1980s, South African Airways suffered with all flights to the U.S. being banned in 1986 and all flights to Australia being stopped in 1987. It was only beginning in 1990 that South African Airways was able to restore services to these destinations and introduce new ones with flights to New York being restored in 1991, and Australia in 1992 as well as direct flights to Southeast Asia with South African Airways winning Executive Travel’s best airline to Africa award for the third time.
In 1997, with their new branding and logo, South African Airways began offering online ticket sales and began to grow internationally and locally and in 2005 became the first non-Saudi airline to fly direct to Saudi Arabia.
Originally only offering a single class operation, South African Airways began a weekly Tourist Class service on the Johannesburg to London run in 1953. In 1981 South African Airways introduced three classes on all its international services, Blue Diamond for first class, Gold class for business class and Silver for economy class and in 1985, First Class service was offered to domestic class passengers.
Information
SAA museum website
SAA website
images/logo’s courtesy of SAA and highclasstravel
