As SAA woes continue and remain out of the picture for more than a year, international media reports indicate that Qantas could be relooking at introducing a direct Johannesburg-Perth flight down the line.
History shows the codeshare signed between Qantas & SAA in the 2000’s, the agreement was SAA operated the Jo’burg-Perth flight & Qantas operated the Jo’burg-Sydney flight.
Qantas regional manager Africa, Michi Messner, told Travel News that the airline’s proposed restart date for international flights had been postponed and flights were now expected to resume on October 31. This date aligns with the expected timeframe for Australia’s COVID vaccine roll-out to be effectively complete.
Regarding Johannesburg-Perth, I can’t comment at this stage. This is not to say we aren’t interested in the route, but our first focus is in resuming our original international routes, including Johannesburg-Sydney, to coincide with the reopening of Australia’s borders,” said Michi.
Fair to say, ‘watch this space’, it will be interesting to see what pans out into the future for this route and way forward and hopefully an improved, more convenient and more flexibility on offer to our travellers when we start reconnecting globally again.
Jonathan Gerber Gavin Stevens Joelene Roberts Kim Parker