Emirates Airline signed an interline agreement with South Africa’s CemAir, enabling Emirates passengers to book a single itinerary for flying aboard CemAir domestic flights beyond Johannesburg (JNB) and Cape Town (CPT) to eight destinations in South Africa.

CemAir passengers will be able to connect to Emirates’ global network via flights from JNB and CPT.

The agreement is the first between the two carriers. Emirates is currently operating 14 flights a week from Dubai (DXB) to JNB, CPT and Durban (DUR).

Emirates already has either interline or codeshare pacts with three other South African airlines: Airlink, Flysafair and South African Airways (SAA). The partnership with SAA is currently redundant as the South African flag-carrier's fleet is grounded as it undergoes restructuring.

The South African destinations included in the Emirates-CemAir interline accord are: Bloemfontein (BFN), Kimberley (KIM), Margate (MGH), DUR, Hoedspruit (HDS), Plettenberg Bay (PBZ), George (GRJ) and Sishen (SIS).

“The new CemAir links provide our customers with even more possibilities to travel smoothly across many of South Africa's most popular leisure points, in addition to the added benefit of connectivity to CemAir's exclusively served points Margate and Plettenberg Bay,” Emirates COO Adnan Kazim said.

CemAir CEO Miles van der Molen added: “Our interline agreement provides our customers with convenience and savings as they can now seamlessly connect from our flights to the vast global network of this iconic airline.”

Photo credit: Rob Finlayson