South African Airways (SAA) has taken the decision to cut down on the number of daily flights from Johannesburg to London from April 2018.

The national carrier will be replacing the double daily service operating on the United Kingdom route with a single daily flight from Johannesburg to London Heathrow with effect from 20 April 2018.

“We have decided to focus on those areas of our business that will enhance our efficiencies, bring more value to our customers and produce improved overall performance of the airline.

“Network optimisation is one such area that can contribute towards containing our costs and we introduced some initiatives that must yield dividends to return the business to commercial sustainability in the shortest time possible,” says SAA Chief Executive Officer Vuyani Jarana.

At the end of 2017, SAA announced network remediation on the domestic and regional markets. The airline has now turned its attention to its international network.

Upgrading the service

In addition, the national carrier also plans to introduce the new A330-300 aircraft on the London route from March 2018.

“We have also decided to upgrade the service operating between Johannesburg and London Heathrow to the new Airbus A330-300 with effect from Sunday, 25 March 2018,” explains Jarana.

This, he notes, will afford customers a significantly improved on-board business and economy product, with state-of-the-art technology, increased comfort and capacity.

SAA took delivery of five new A330-300 aircraft last year. The aircraft offers state-of-the-art technology and are environmentally friendly and comfortable.

The new aircraft offers more business class seats than any aircraft already in the SAA fleet.

In total, the aircraft has capacity for 249 passengers, with 46 in business and 203 in economy class.

Meanwhile, the carrier will continue to operate daily non-stop SA234/SA235 service which offers customers convenient connections into and out of Johannesburg on SAA and codeshare partners’ domestic and regional networks.