Africa’s largest carrier South African Airways (SAA) is to inaugurate a new daily air link between its main base at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the airline expands its strategic partnership with Gulf carrier Etihad Airways.

In what is described as a new era of cooperation between the two national flag carriers, SAA will introduce the daily link from March 29, 2015, which will complement Etihad Airways’ existing flights between the two cities to offer a combined double-daily frequency on the route.

The joint schedule will offer business and leisure travellers the convenience of multiple options between Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi within the same day, while more than 1,000 connections will also be offered each week via Etihad Airways’ Abu Dhabi hub to key markets including the GCC region, Middle East, Indian subcontinent, and North and South East Asia.

This will be facilitated by a deeper codeshare arrangement between the two airlines which will see the number of routes covered more than double from 24 to 49. Subject to regulatory approval, Etihad will place its ‘EY’ code on the SAA Abu Dhabi flight, in addition to 16 of the airline’s other services from Johannesburg to key destinations across the African continent. In return, SAA will place its ‘SA’ code on 32 Etihad routes beyond Abu Dhabi to a range of destinations worldwide.

“The partnership between Etihad Airways and South African Airways has been a resounding commercial success for both airlines. Since our codeshare flights were first on sale in July last year, we have placed more than 20,000 passengers onto each other’s flights, and there is huge potential to significantly increase that number as the cooperation is developed in the coming years,” said James Hogan, president and chief executive officer, Etihad Airways.

The second phase of this business relationship between the two airlines follows the approval of a commercial coordination by South African Competition Authorities, allowing them to compete more effectively as a partnership, but additional opportunities are available to further deepen the relationship.

Etihad and SAA continue to explore areas for further cooperation, including joint sales and marketing programs and the coordination of procurement, facilities and airport operations. Together, these initiatives will further optimise synergies between the airlines and provide passengers with consistently high product and service levels at the most competitive price.

“Our multi-layered partnership with Etihad Airways has been instrumental in allowing South African Airways to establish new connections between the African continent and other markets worldwide for its passengers,” said Nico Bezuidenhout, acting chief executive officer, South African Airways.

“Under the second phase of our cooperation, we will better serve established regions such as North America, Europe and Australia, while strengthening our presence in fast-growing markets across the Middle East and Asia. In particular, the codeshare expansion will support a planned adjustment of our network to strengthen access into the fast-growing China and India markets,” he added.

The new SAA flight between Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi will be operated by an Airbus A330-200, the same aircraft Etihad currently deploys on the route. The new SAA flight will operate as a daytime flight from South Africa and overnight return from the UAE, complementing the operation of the Etihad flight which departs Abu Dhabi in the morning and returns from South Africa overnight.

Etihad has been serving the Abu Dhabi – Johannesburg market since December 2005, albeit initially only operating two weekly frequencies on the route, firstly with an Airbus A340-300 and then a Boeing 777-300ER. A daily operation was introduced from August 2007 when the A330-200 was deployed on the route and has been maintained for the subsequent seven plus years.

In our analysis we look at annual passenger demand on the city pair. In the eight years Etihad served this market up until 2013, annual bi-directional demand has risen from just under 35,000 passengers in 2006 to around 140,000 last year, an average annual rise of 43.2 per cent. The chart looks at the breakdown of passengers on the route over the past five full calendar years.

Data provided by