Air Seychelles has announced it has entered right into a codeshare agreement with South African Airways, the national airline of the Republic of South Africa.
The first phase of the agreement will see South African Airways place its “SA” code on Air Seychelles’ non-stop flights between Johannesburg and Seychelles.
South African Airways can even place its code on flights between the 2 largest islands of Seychelles, Mahé and Praslin, subject to approvals.
Subsequent to the launch of the partnership between Air Seychelles and SAA, the airlines will look at expanding the agreement to incorporate Air Seychelles placing its ‘HM’ code on South African Airways’ non-stop flights between Johannesburg and destinations across South Africa.
Ticket sales are set to open on April 29th, for travel from April 30th.
The deal follows a strategic move by Air Seychelles to extend its connectivity throughout South Africa and continental Africa.
In March 2013, Air Seychelles introduced an enhanced schedule and extra weekly service on its Johannesburg route, bringing the flights to 3 return services a week with daytime departures and arrivals.
The new schedule greatly enhances leisure and business travellers’ ability to glue seamlessly on both airlines across Africa and South Africa, particularly to Cape Town and Durban.
Cramer Ball, Air Seychelles chief executive officer, said: “Our flights to Johannesburg had been incredibly successful, reflecting increasingly more travellers popping out of South Africa to the Seychelles for leisure, business and sport.
“Traffic from South Africa has grown at a gradual pace of eleven per cent every year for the past decade.
“In the primary quarter of this year alone, traffic is up 13 per cent.
“With this codeshare agreement, guests would be capable of purchase flights from South African Airways destinations onwards to the Seychelles on one ticket, making for a less complicated and seamless journey.
“We have also established a foundation for twin-centre tourism products which combine a safari in Africa with a Seychelles beach holiday.
“SAA Holidays can also be adding Seychelles to their holiday program, providing a brand new channel for selling travel to our island nation and supporting the extremely important tourism industry.”
Subject to regulatory approval, the airlines plan to expand the scope of this agreement to incorporate frequent flyer program reciprocity and more codeshare destinations on their respective networks.
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