Summary
- There will be three-weekly flights rather than the previous daily service, influenced by South African Airways' lack of aircraft.
- While the A340-300 is expected to be used initially, it plans to switch to the much more fuel-efficient Airbus A330 as soon as possible, transforming economics.
- The Perth route makes sense due to the large South African population in the city and the lack of alternatives to a long detour. But the route's timings do not help with the once-vital connecting passengers.
South African Airways (SAA) is resuming its long-served Johannesburg-Perth route in April. It follows Qantas ending the seasonal route in March 2023. When combined with Qantas between Sydney and Johannesburg, all routes operational in 2019 will be served again, although not with the same number of flights.
SAA returns to Perth
After a four-year absence, the beleaguered SAA will resume flying from Johannesburg to Perth on April 28th. While it operated daily in 2019, it will now run thrice weekly. This is a logical frequency for the reintroduction, although the carrier's lack of aircraft influences it. It is scheduled as follows with all times local:
- Johannesburg-Perth: SA280, 20:55-12:20+1 (9h 25m)
- Perth-Johannesburg: SA281, 14:40-19:35 (10h 55m)
South African Airways Relaunches Johannesburg To Perth Flights
After a pandemic-induced gap, South African Airways is resuming its route to Perth in Western Australia.It will switch to the A330
The long, 5,173-mile (8,326 km) route is almost entirely over water. While the carrier says it will initially use the Airbus A340-300, despite its poor fuel consumption and economics, it is less because it wants to and more because it needs to. Still, it is another way for avgeeks to fly the increasingly rare type.
A source tells me that SAA's two A330-300s (one is operational, the other is not yet) have a problem with ETOPS to Perth. This means they cannot be used for Australia flights for now, at least not with a proper, logical, optimal routing.
The plan is for the A330 to replace the A340 as soon as possible, which is a sensible decision that will help with performance. Despite undertaking a test flight, the second A330, ZS-SXJ (shown below), has not yet reentered service, suggesting a problem.
Once the ETOPS problem is resolved, the airline will be able to switch equipment to Perth. Given April 28th is four-and-a-half months away, it is possible that the A340 won't be used at all.
Why does the route make sense?
A lot of the things SAA does are questionable, but this is arguably not one of them. Indeed, it appears to make good sense. According to the Australian Government, more than 200,000 South African-born people will be residing in the country in 2021. After Sydney, most live in Perth.
Perth to/from South Africa is a good-sized market. Booking data suggests that 98,000 people flew in 2019, when SAA operated, with 268 passengers daily excluding seasonality. Johannesburg was, not surprisingly, by far the biggest market. Traffic rose to about 120,000 (329 daily) for the broader Southern Africa region.
About eight in ten of SAA's passengers were visiting friends and relatives (VFR), with this demand source ordinarily the lowest of the low for airline yields. Perhaps this won't be as problematic for the carrier as it might seem.
Since SAA ended, most passengers have had little choice but to connect in Singapore or the Middle East. Traveling between Perth and Johannesburg via Dubai, for example, virtually doubles the distance traveled. Ouch. As the only non-stop operator, SAA should gain over half of the passengers and a good premium for its much quicker, simpler option. This will help to offset the higher seat-mile costs of its A340s.
Is there a problem?
In 2019, booking data suggests that more than half of SAA's Perth passengers connected to other flights in Johannesburg. Given the airline's much smaller network now, might this be a problem? Yes and no.
Based on the airline's website, its 19:35 arrival time in Johannesburg means that even its largest connecting markets (Cape Town, Durban, and Harare) do not connect in both ways in a sensible, competitive manner. Instead, passengers must wait overnight in Johannesburg.
While SAA has mid-evening flights to Cape Town and Durban, dummy bookings on the carrier's website show they are not available in combo with Perth, probably as they're barely one hour later (they leave at 20:30/20:35). It is a shame SAA can't change its schedule to enable easy connectivity in both directions.
At the same time, it has less than half of the available capacity to fill than before. It will rely more than previously on the Johannesburg P2P market, which, as mentioned above, was the biggest traffic source. As P2P markets are higher-yielding and less expensive, it might be good if it could consistently fill its aircraft. Given the time saving, this will hopefully be likely.
What do you make of it all? Let us know in the comments section.