Saa Going To Star Not Skyteam

[JFK777]

South African Airways is joining the Star Alliance. This means then end of Delta & SAA code share and the likely end of SAA's service to Atlanta. SKYTEAM looks like a better fit for SAA;

1. SAA and Delta to the USA

2. KLM and Kenya Air( 49% owned by KLM) in East Africa

3. Air France's control in Francophone west africa

I don't see SAA getting such advantage from Star. Since SAA is the biggest airline in Africa it's the only alliance prize worth having. If SAA joined SKYTEAM hey would own African airline traffic.

 

[tadjr]

There's a pretty good SAA/Star discussion going on in The United Forum. From looking at SAAs website, they already partner with BMI/LH/Thai/Varig so they must have good numbers with the other Star carriers they're currently associated with. Also opens up the possibilty of more Asian traffic vs Skyteam with Thai/Singapore/Asiana/ANA all part of Star vs Korean. Also other than LH and a couple other flights here and there, SAA will be able to do whatever they want and can do with African traffic. Imagine the feed from UA/US/AC in the US to South Africa and beyond as well as a full schedule integration possibility with BMI/LH/OS/SK, etc in Europe. I dont see any comparison between the Star and Skyteam possibilities for SAA.

 

[MAH4546]

I'm surprised too. The best fit for SAA, IMO, would have been oneWorld. Just by the fact that the world's three of world's four largest South African communities are in oneWorld hubs: Miami, London, and Sydney (the one missing from the bunch is Perth).

They would dominate the ever lucrative UK-ZA market with BA, just like BA/QF dominate the Kangaroo Route.

 

[JFK777]

ONEWORLD is awonderful alliance but not for SAA. Would the British allow SAA & BA to dominate the route from South Africa to LHR the way AA/BA tried to from the USA? I don't think they would since only Virgin competes with them in that market. Some might say what about QF/BA from the UK to Australia; the Asian competitors are a vastly more advanced and greater in number then competition from SA to the UK.