Maybe a direct flight from South Africa to Belgium!

lumumba · Post by **lumumba** » 14 Mar 2006, 23:30

Hi everybody.
It is in Le Soir of today that the economic delegation in South Africa are discussing a possible flight between the 2 countries.
SAA and SN will discus it.
regards
Patrice

EBAW_flyer · Post by **EBAW_flyer** » 15 Mar 2006, 10:43

Lol, first Hainan after the mission to china, and now SAA after the one to SA? I don't think SAA would do that. I don't think the South African market is big enough in Belgium. If they would add an extra European link, AMS would be more logical.

regi · Post by **regi** » 15 Mar 2006, 11:00

you would be surprised about the intensity of business travel to Johannesburg - diamonds e.g.
Tourism, okay.
And connections to other african countries, where South-Africa has a more succesful approach.
Belgium has a large communtiy of africans .

sn-remember · Post by **sn-remember** » 15 Mar 2006, 12:19

And the belgian community present in South Africa is quite important too (the second in importance after Canada if my memory is good)
The market is ripe, so many belgians traveling there nowadays and unhappy not to find in BRU the direct link they want...
Si it's no surprise to me if, after Ethiopian Airlines starting in BRU, SAA decides to move in.
Also lots of opportunities for ongoing traffic to UK !!

744rules · Post by **744rules** » 15 Mar 2006, 12:49

Why did SAA cancel their flights ex BRU in the first place ? They had a weekly connection to JNB thru FRA.

Established02 · Post by **Established02** » 15 Mar 2006, 13:44

744rules wrote:Why did SAA cancel their flights ex BRU in the first place ? They had a weekly connection to JNB thru FRA.

Airlines and markets are object to continuous change.

In what context did SAA operate to BRU previously?

I remember seeing the orange Springbok 742/747SP flying over Brussels on Wednesday afternoon, heading for FRA.
That must have been at the end of the eighties.
I believe that at that time Sabena operated a twice weekly (Wed & Sun) BRU-FIH-JNB with 742/743.

Did SAA fly to BRU in their newest colours?

Last november I asked a (British) SAA sales guy whether SAA was considering to reopen JNB-BRU.
The guy replied that -according to him- BRU was clearly not under consideration.

However things can change, who knows.
SAA would obviously have the Belgian market all for itself.

Telspace · Post by **Telspace** » 15 Mar 2006, 13:46

Hi,

...and Sobelair failed too !

Denis

regi · Post by **regi** » 15 Mar 2006, 14:00

sobelair failed all together

sn-remember · Post by **sn-remember** » 15 Mar 2006, 14:16

... and sabena used to operate a daily non stop A340 on the JNB route, with a very high load factor but poor yields.
Today I am confident that SAA can make the route a money maker, in coop with the local snba preferably to help guarantee a good start.

Post by **sn26567** » 15 Mar 2006, 14:24

Are there representatives of SNBA in the economic mission to RSA? It would be ironic to see them travelling in a plane of their arch-rival LH!

SpicyJet · Post by **SpicyJet** » 15 Mar 2006, 17:55

Should we expect a new SNBA route "operated by another carrier" ??

Will SN break the worldwide code-sharing record with this SA link ??

kiwiandrew · Post by **kiwiandrew** » 15 Mar 2006, 18:27

seems unlikely to me - SA have stated a number of times that they would like to eventually operate all their intercontinental flights daily - and a daily JNB-BRU seems severe overkill - in any case between SA and their ( soon) *Alliance partners BD and LH they offer numerous daily connections between JNB and BRU over either LHR or FRA

Atlantis · Post by **Atlantis** » 15 Mar 2006, 18:36

We have to be careful with the information about talks for direct flights to BRU.
The last trade mission of Verwilghen a couple of months ago, he also talked with Qatar to organize direct flights to BRU.

It's good they remember some countries that there is no direct connection with the country they are, but in practice it can be years to have it.

joesoap101 · Post by **joesoap101** » 03 Apr 2006, 23:02

Aer Lingus has shown interest in starting a direct flight from Dublin to Johannesburg with an A330. An Irish charter company already operates an A330 from LTU from Dublin to Cape Town. Im sure if it is viable in a country with a population of 4.1 milion that it could be viable from Belgium? Dublin and London are very close, and yet the Aer Lingus thinks there's a market... Perhaps in the future!?

burner737 · Post by **burner737** » 03 Apr 2006, 23:12

We can only hope ... That there will be flights to SA again in the (near) future !!!

Regards Tim

website-info · Post by **website-info** » 04 Apr 2006, 08:39

think you need to keep an eye on Nationwide

T

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 06 Apr 2006, 21:01

Press report about Nationwide - 5th April:

NATIONWIDE Airlines is investigating a non-stop service to China but plans are still at an early stage. CEO Vernon Bricknell said the airline intended to apply for a licence to operate non-stop between Johannesburg and Beijing within the year and intended to lease a second-hand B747-400 for this purpose.

No sign of JNB-BRU-JNB...

Atlantis · Post by **Atlantis** » 06 Apr 2006, 21:25

I don't believe we would see in the near future SAA or Nationwide at BRU. The market for South-Africa is growing but it's still to small to receive a B747-400, A340-600 on a regular base.

Or you can attract people from Holland to leave from BRU to South-Africa. This is the same situation when Belgians went to AMS to took Martinair or Arkefly and fly to South-America. Thomas Cook organize such flights (this is only one example off course).

LJ · Post by LJ » 07 Apr 2006, 23:32

Or you can attract people from Holland to leave from BRU to South-Africa. This is the same situation when Belgians went to AMS to took Martinair or Arkefly and fly to South-America. Thomas Cook organize such flights (this is only one example off course).

I hope you know what happened last time an airline (SN) tried to sell tickets BRU-JNB in The Netherlands. Yields were very very poor (but then again, they sold many many tickets).