Jet
Airways, India’s premier international airline, and South African
Airways (SAA), the national carrier of South Africa and the only
airline with non-stop flights between Mumbai and Johannesburg, are
pleased to announce a code share agreement enabling seamless
connectivity between India and South Africa. The code share opens for
Sale effective April 16th 2013, for travel effective April 18th 2013.
Under
the codeshare arrangement Jet Airways will code share on South
African Airways’ flights between Mumbai and Johannesburg and beyond
to Cape Town and Durban. SAA will code share on Jet Airways’
operations between Mumbai and Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai
and Thiruvananthapuram. The agreement will effectively enhance flight
choices for customers, whether originating in India or Africa,
through seamless and convenient connections and frequent flyer
mileage opportunities.
According
to Mr. Sudheer Raghavan, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways, “Jet
Airways is delighted to enter into a codeshare partnership with SAA,
South Africa’s national carrier. Besides its global popularity as a
tourist destination, South Africa, in its capacity as Africa’s
largest economy, is also a strategic trade and investment
destination. With the seamless connections offered between India and
South Africa, we are confident that this mutually beneficial
codeshare will prove extremely popular with both business and leisure
travellers.”
“The
partnership strengthens the historic commercial, political and
cultural cooperation between South Africa and India. “In essence,
the agreement further supports the objectives of the BRICS member
states”. It will help meet the high demand for air travel between
India’s large business hubs and South Africa” said Manoj Papa,
SAA’s acting General Manager: Commercial.
A
recent study conducted by the Department of Tourism indicated that
the number of tourists from India to South Africa has steadily
increased in recent years by over 122% between 2005 and 2010 and a
further 29% increase between January and September 2011.
South
Africa and its emerging demand for leisure travel also offer India
great growth potential. India is also gaining prominence as a
business travel destination from South Africa.
“The
additional connectivity between Southern Africa and India as a result
of the codeshare relationship between Jet Airways and SAA will help
strengthen tourism and trade ties between our two countries”, said
Papa.
Furthermore,
customers who are members of SAA’s loyalty programme, Voyager, will
be able to earn and redeem miles as well as obtain tier status when
travelling on Jet Airways on SAA marketing flights. Likewise, members
of Jet Airways’ Jet Privilege programme will also be able to earn
and redeem JPMiles earn Tier points/Tier JPMiles when they travel on
SAA flights marketed by Jet Airways. This provides an opportunity for
customers to spend miles exploring the various Indian and South
African destinations on offer.
