Summary
- South African Airways and SunExpress will strengthen their partnership, with SunExpress providing more aircraft to SAA within the 2024/25 financial yr.
- The expanded agreement includes the leasing of two additional single-aisle jets in the course of the European winter season and the exploration of other collaborative opportunities.
- This partnership allows SunExpress to optimize its fleet and helps SAA manage the demand during peak seasons while mitigating the worldwide aircraft availability crisis.
South African Airways (SAA) and SunExpress will expand their current partnership, which is able to see the Antalya-based airline provide more aircraft to South Africa’s national carrier within the 2024/25 financial yr. Moreover, the 2 firms will proceed to explore other opportunities to strengthen their relationship.
Providing additional aircraft and support
To finalize the deal, South African Airways CEO, Professor John Lamola, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) along with his SunExpress counterpart Max Kownatzki in Johannesburg. That is along with the present six-month damp lease agreement signed in October 2023 for the availability of two Boeing 737 aircraft, maintenance, and cockpit crew.
Photo: SunExpress
Under the brand new agreement, SunExpress will double the variety of aircraft leased to SAA, providing two more single-aisle jets for the 2024/25 European winter season. With plans to have a fleet of about 150 aircraft in the subsequent ten years, partnerships just like the one with SAA allow the Turkish-German company to utilize its fleet efficiently and offer a super solution to mitigating the impact of its seasonality. Max Kownatzki highlighted the importance of the brand new MoU, saying,
“The memorandum of understanding clearly underlines our commitment to further deepen our successful partnership with SAA. We’re happy with the trust that SAA is placing in us with the renewed intention to collaborate. We attempt to construct on this to develop a robust, long-term partnership and leverage more opportunities together in the long run.”
While there are plans to extend the variety of aircraft on lease from SunExpress, SAA can even explore options for long-term reciprocal capability support and other opportunities to collaborate in maintenance, training, and industrial operations.
South African Airways Boosts December Airbus A340 Schedule
The airline has still not retired its final A340-300 plane.
SunExpress Boeing 737s in South Africa
Sun Express and SAA signed a deal in October 2023 for 2 Boeing 737-800 80s, which the national carrier will operate for six months. The damp lease agreement covers the availability of the aircraft, cockpit crew, and maintenance. Nonetheless, the flights are operated with SAA’s cabin crew as a part of the airline’s aim to keep up its
Photo: SunExpress
Just like several other regions, airline operators in South Africa are currently witnessing a few of their busiest schedules. SunExpress has provided SAA with the much-needed additional capability in the course of the busy holiday travel period and can now extend its support into 2024. Speaking concerning the expanded partnership, Professor John Lamola said,
“SunExpress has proven to be an especially reliable partner for us in the primary few months. We’re due to this fact delighted that this worthwhile partnership won’t only be continued, however the scope of the partnership expanded to incorporate additional aircraft for our 2024 holiday peak season. The extra aircraft will support our operations to fulfill the growing customer demand during peak seasons and mitigate our management of the worldwide aircraft availability crisis.”
The 2 Turkey-registered aircraft (TC-SEZ and TC-SOB) currently operate flights from Johannesburg OR Tambo International (JNB) to Cape Town (CPT), Durban (DUR), and Gqeberha (PLZ), formerly generally known as Port Elizabeth. The JNB-PLZ route was launched on December 13 and is operated twice each day with the leased 737s. It is a seasonal service ending on March 31, 2024.
In line with ch-aviation, the remaining of SAA’s fleet comprises six Airbus A320s, two A330s, one A340, and a 737-300 leased from Africa Charter Airline. SunExpress, the Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa three way partnership, has a fleet of 62 aircraft, including 53 737-800s and nine 737 MAX 8s.
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