Perth: South African Airways to restart route in 2024
Here is some good news for South African communities who need to travel to Perth in Western Australia. Direct flights will restart in March.
South African Airways will resume scheduled flights between Johannesburg and Perth in Western Australia next year.
Currently, travellers wishing to travel between South Africa and Perth must make use of connecting flights which tend to make the trip lengthy and uncomfortable.
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PERTH FLIGHTS
The airline says it will resume its Perth flight schedule in March 2024. The restart of the route is made possible due to SAA securing additional aircraft.
Tourism Update reports that SAA’s Carla da Silva, GM Sales, Marketing, e-Commerce and Distribution says that the airline is securing aircraft leases in line with its corporate plan.
REBUILDING NATIONAL CARRIER
SA’s national carrier suspended all flights at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Subsequently, the airline was grounded for a lengthy period while it underwent a business rescue process.
When SAA resumed scheduled flights in 2021, the carrier operated flights to just a few destinations in neighbouring countries as well as between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The relaunched airline said it would build back better and become less reliant on public funding.
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INTERCONTINENTAL ROUTES
SAA has slowly scaled up its flight schedule and route network over the last two years, paying attention to financial sustainability.
Last month SAA relaunched its first intercontinental services since restarting operations two years ago.
It started up flights to Sao Paulo (in Brazil) from both Johannesburg and Cape Town. The airline has now announced that it will restart services to another international destination – Perth.
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SOUTH AFRICANS IN AUSTRALIA
The news of direct flights between Johannesburg and Perth will certainly be well-received by the large number of South Africans who have connections with Perth.
South African expatriates favour the city as it offers a similar climate and way of life to that of cities like Cape Town.
Perth is often called Perthfontein (a South African colloquialism) by SA communities because the city hosts large numbers of SA migrants.
Perth was a busy and profitable route for SAA. The absence of direct flights has deterred travellers who would ordinarily travel between the two countries.