Tebello Radebe
The stage is set for powerful foreign interests to play an increasingly dominant role in the domestic air travel industry — first came South African Airways’ (SAA) link-up with Lufthansa, then the Comair-British Airways (BA) franchise deal, and now it is the Virgin Airlines and Sun Air talks.
Virgin Airlines’ South African representative Caroline Ravenall confirmed that talks between British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Airways and Sun Air are under way to hammer out a deal with the domestic carrier ahead of Virgin’s maiden flight from London to Johannesburg on October 2. An equity deal between the two has not been ruled out “at this stage”.
Meanwhile, Bert van der Linden, commercial director of Comair, the 50-year-old local private airline, announced a multi-million rand upgrading programme to launch a business-class service next month. This face-lift will tie up with the launch of Comair’s franchise agreement with the global giant BA.
“We shall be repainting our aircraft and signage as well as changing our crew’s uniforms and aircraft livery to those of BA.”
In terms of the Comair/BA franchise agreement, Comair will be able to use BA’s worldwide booking and sales facilities, including the BA Executive Club — highly rated as one of the best frequent- flyer incentive systems in the world.
Thebe Investments’ joint venture with SAA — SA Express together with Inter-Air, the independently owned carrier, are two of the other notable regional airlines on the domestic market. Both have also recently reported bold expansion plans.
SAA representative Leon Els described the forays of foreign players in the local market as part of an ongoing global trend similar to the “strong alliance” agreement SAA entered into with the German Airline Lufthansa last September.