Qantas will end its codeshare agreement with South African Airways on May 31 covering services between Perth-Johannesburg and Sydney-Johannesburg.
Qantas will retain its daily Sydney-Johannesburg service, but through its codeshare agreement with Emirates, the Australian airline will now direct its Perth passengers wanting to travel to South Africa onto Emirates services via Dubai. South African, meanwhile, will be left without a service to Sydney as it will no longer be able to place its code on Qantas’s Sydney-Johannesburg flights. South African stopped operating to Sydney with its own aircraft in 2000.
The move comes after South African Airways announced earlier in February a codesharing agreement with Virgin Australia between Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide (but not Sydney) to connect to its Perth-Johannesburg flights.
“Australia and New Zealand remain important markets for SAA and its customers and although we no longer operate flights ourselves to Sydney, we will maintain our presence in the country through our own operations to Perth and all of our established partnerships,” Kendy Phohleli, SAA general manager commercial (acting) said in a statement. “We have always worked well with Qantas and together we are looking at a smooth transition for the benefit of our respective clients which are both business and leisure travellers.”
