SAA ready to fly fans to games

The national carrier of South Africa will play an integral part in World Cup logistics. With match venues spread across nine cities over 30 days, the sudden influx of tourists will be moving in masses as they follow the games.

South African Airways (SAA) said it has contingency plans in place and a lot of flexibility built into its fleet and flight schedule to cope with the traffic.

The carrier said it would run 24-hour operations on match days, and it has an additional 220 cabin crew, extra check-in staff and up to four back-up aircraft ready to put into action if they are needed at short notice.

SAA chief executive Siza Mzimela said the company had also doubled the baggage handling security measures.

SAA head of corporate affairs Fani Zulu said additional flights would be designed around the times and locations of the games.

He said the recent cancelled flights due to the ash cloud over Europe had affected the airline, but it had also helped its staff to prepare for the World Cup.

"It tested our readiness to respond quickly," he said.

Ticket fares for the games were recently reduced after a contract with the Fifa-appointed World Cup agency MATCH was terminated.

The tour agency that booked air tickets, hotels and tour packages initially wanted 90,000 seats, which later fell to 45,000. Airline officials said a price hike and "other difficulties" led to the contract's cancellation.

"When we terminated the deal with MATCH, 45,000 seats were released back into the marketplace [beginning of April]," Mzimela said. She said that most of those seats have since been taken up.

Since a restructuring that ended in 2009, Mzimela indicated the airline had been planning to grow again.

SAA's fleet will be boosted with the introduction of six new wide-body, twin-engine A330 aircraft, to be leased from February 2011.

The other five will be delivered between April and December 2011, the company said.

This year the airline will receive two Boeing 737-800s, two Airbus 340-300s and two A330-200s.

By the end of next year the fleet will comprise 24 wide body aircraft, 32 narrow body aircraft and four from its low-cost subsidiary Mango, bringing the total to 58.

The airline recently gained approval from its board for an order of 20 Airbus 320s that it placed in 2006, and was being renegotiated.

Zulu said delivery timelines and purchase prices were still being discussed and had not been finalised.

"We will be seeing great movement in the coming two years," Mzimela said. She said the airline planned to increase routes within the region and frequencies to existing destinations. "That remains the focus going forward," she said.