Domestic airline Nationwide Air has officially launched its first international route on the most popular route in Africa — Johannesburg to London.
At a packed auditorium at the Melrose Arch Hotel, Nationwide MD Chris Hoare unveiled the carrier’s latest addition — a Boeing 767-300ER wide-bodied jet — bought from Air Canada.
The jet will begin services to London’s Gatwick airport on November 28, becoming the first South African carrier to use Gatwick as a gateway to the United Kingdom and Europe.
And with prices kicking off from R5 050 for a return ticket, the airline is set to make a serious dent in its competition on one of the world’s most dense air-traffic routes.
Demand on the Johannesburg- to-London route has been so intense that the UK has been calling for an additional 11 frequencies a week, so the new service will certainly help fill the gap and go some way towards alleviating the lack of availability problem.
Nationwide will fly the route three times a week — on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays; with return flights available from Gatwick on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The flights are overnighters, with departure from Johannesburg at 8.35pm, arriving at Gatwick at 5.55am the following morning.
From London the flights depart at 9pm, arriving back in Jo’burg at 10.20am the following morning.
The new aircraft has a two-three-two seating configuration, offering passengers much more aisle space in its all-economy seating arrangement.
“The decision to go the all-economy route was taken because with the business-class facilities offered by our competitors it did not make sense trying to compete,” said Hoare.
“In any event, research tells us that more and more business people are flying economy these days, and we are offering a very special economy experience that we hope will set us apart from our fellow carriers.”
A maximum seating capacity of 234 passengers a flight, including 53 economy plus seats with a 88cm pitch (as opposed to the standard economy seat’s 81cm pitch) will offer an additional 702 seats a week to the UK and vice versa.
Nationwide’s research has shown that about one million South African passport holders are currently resident in the UK — a market the airline is keen to tap into.
The new flights will have a dedicated cabin crew of eight people, offering passengers a choice of three meals with desserts and a cheese basket, a full bar service, the crew on call throughout the flight, and nine hours of in-flight entertainment on three video screens located in each section of the aircraft.
Arrival in Gatwick and Johannesburg has been timed to optimise onward connections to Europe and other parts of South Africa.
Gatwick is the sixth-busiest and the busiest single-runway airport in the world, with up to 86 air-traffic movements an hour.
It is home to about 70 airlines, transporting more than 31-million people to 201 destinations across the world each year.
Nationwide will run its operation from Gatwick’s new North Terminal, giving it an ideal base from which passengers can link to coach, rail and underground services together with onward flights.
Nationwide began life in 1991 when CEO Vernon Bricknell began the Nationwide Air Group as a charter service.
In 1995 Nationwide Airlines was launched, offering competitively-priced domestic flights through- out South Africa and to popular Southern African destinations such as Kilimanjaro and Livingstone.
The airline is partnered with Virgin Atlantic, Air Botswana and Kenya Airways and has inter-airline agreements with British Airways and Continental Airlines, among others. It is also a full participant in Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club frequent flyer programme, offering passengers the opportunity to earn and redeem air miles on all flights.
In addition, Nationwide has its own tour operation, Nationwide Holidays, aimed at bringing friends and families in the UK and South Africa closer together with a range of package holiday options in Southern Africa and the UK.
For more information on flights to the UK, contact Nationwide Airlines on 0861 737 737. For details of holiday packages, contact Nationwide Holidays on Tel: 0861 757 757. Alternatively all flight schedules, fares, availability and holiday packages can be viewed at www.flynationwide.co.za.