Emirates, South African Airways to expand pact

dubai — Emirates Airline and South African Airways (SAA) are expanding their strategic cooperation with enhancements to its codeshare agreement, opening up new destinations for both Emirates and SAA customers.

Pending governmental approval, South African Airways and Emirates have signed an enhanced commercial partnership which will see the relationship between the two carriers grow and strengthen their codeshare agreement signed in 1997, across a wide spectrum of commercial and customer touch points.

“We remain deeply committed to our decades-long relationship with SAA, and the forthcoming expansion of our codeshare

agreement is an exciting development and a significant milestone in our history in South Africa,” said Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates airline.

“We have seen great success with the codeshare agreement, having enabled greater connectivity to both SAA and Emirates customers, by offering more choice, flexibility and ease of connections to a wide range of cities via Dubai and across more points in Southern Africa.”

According to Vuyani Jarana, CEO of South African Airways, this agreement will enable the carriers to explore and leverage synergies in a much more enhanced relationship of mutual benefit. “Our route network and that of Emirates complement one another. The expansion of our partnership will further strengthen key focus areas of the implementation of our turnaround plan,” said Jarana.

The two airlines will work towards bringing more synergies in their respective route network, customer touch points, cargo services and flight schedules to enable seamless connectivity and enhance passenger flows.

The codeshare agreement has enabled greater connectivity to both SAA and Emirates customers

Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates airline