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We’re looking at Abuja as SAA’s next entry point – Duma

By BusinessNews Staff on November 17, 2014

Thobikile Duma has been South African Airways Country Manager in Nigeria since September 2009, the first woman to be appointed by any of the foreign owned airlines operating in Nigeria to that position. In the intervening years, she has midwifed the establishment of an ultra- modern executive lounge for SAA’s premium class passengers at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, among other achievements. Demola Ojo had a chat with her on new developments at SAA
What’s new at South African Airways?
We’ve added an eight frequency (in addition to daily flights) which we introduced in the first week of September. Initially, it would leave South Africa on a Tuesday and leave Nigeria on a Wednesday so Nigeria used to have two flights Wednesday. However, we saw that as much as the public liked the extra frequency and the times that we offered, the days of the week were not suitable for the market as we found out through feedback and from analysing the figures. So we’ve changed the days starting from October 26.
The flight now leaves South Africa on a Sunday, so on Sunday’s you have two flights out of Johannesburg and on a Monday you have two flights leaving from Lagos.
On Sunday, we have a flight leaving 10:30 in the morning and another flight at 11pm. For those that want to reach Nigeria early from South Arica you can take the morning flight and get to Lagos in the afternoon. However if you are connecting from Durban or Cape Town and you need more time, you don’t need to rush to get a connecting flight because you have the option of taking the evening flight and get to Lagos the next morning.
In fact, the load factor of the first flights were above what we were expecting and ever since then, we struggled to get free business class seats on those two flights (on Sunday coming from Johannesburg) because the flights cater for different needs. Business class is so full that you have to plan ahead to get a seat.
It maximizes people’s weekend time in South Africa. Those that leave Lagos on a Thursday or Friday to enjoy their weekend are all gunning for those flights. They have become so popular especially for those who want to avoid the hustle and bustle of landing in Lagos at night. People have actually been asking if we can make the change in time long term. This is part of the feedback we are sending to headquarters.

So is it a short term experiment?
It only happens on the days when we have two flights, Sundays from Johannesburg, Mondays from Lagos. Normally we leave Johannesburg at 1445 and arrive Lagos around 2000 and the flight departs Lagos at 2215 for its return journey. On the days when we’ve added the extra flights, instead of leaving at 1445, we’ve made it earlier (1030) and then a later flight at 2300. The first flight gets to Lagos in the afternoon, the later flight gets to Lagos early Monday morning at about 0430.

Are there plans to further increase the frequency?
Going forward in the coming year, we have plans to expand beyond the eighth frequency and add two more frequencies to utilize the 10 frequencies we have approved for us by the bilateral agreement we have with Nigeria. It has been 10 for about two years. We’ve only been using the seven.
Now that we’ve introduced the eighth and seen the positive reaction from the market, we’ll like to implement the other two. We are looking at the best way to utilize those flights so that we can include our Abuja passengers. Once that is in place, we would make sure that the public is aware. Abuja is definitely what we foresee for those two extra frequencies.
Any other Nigerian cities you’re looking at apart from Lagos and Abuja?
Right now, Abuja is the only second entry point we have looked at. Who knows, when we start in Abuja where else we will see opportunities. But we expect to take it one step at a time. Looking at our future figures, every time we’ve done our forecast, we see that there is potential for growth, we know that there are certain markets we are really not tapping into for different reasons.
We are trying to get feedback and see how we can best cater for our customers who tell us “this is how you can best service me” instead of us saying “take that.” It’s wonderful when you have that flexibility. I think proof of that is us changing the day of our eighth frequency to suit the needs of our customers. We’ll do the same when we try and introduce Abuja.

Which other destinations in West Africa do you go to?
We fly to Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon, Senegal and others in the pipeline.

Are they still operational? No withdrawals due to Ebola?
We never withdrew from any destination. At South African Airways, we believe that as long as we are educated, there is no problem. Our crew have got the necessary training to take care of any emergency should they arise. Most of the countries in the region we fly to had no cases or are considered low risk. It was just Senegal and Nigeria. And now we (Nigeria) are now Ebola-free as declared by the World Health Organisation. Both countries handled the incidence of the virus very well.

Any cities in South Africa apart from Johannesburg that you’re looking to connect directly to Nigeria?
Not at the moment. I know that Tourism KwaZulu-Natal is in favour of that, and we’re looking at trying to grow the business between Lagos and Durban, so maybe in future. But one of the best things that Johannesburg offers is the fact that we have connectivity to almost all the cities in South Africa almost every hour.
Our operations are just that good so once you’re in Johannesburg, every single hour there’s a flight to Durban by South African Airways. Almost every second hour, there’s a flight to Cape Town. There are also other wonderful places we fly to besides those two. Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and so much more.
Besides looking at domestic destinations within South Africa, we also try and focus on other places we can connect you to. As much as we serve domestic for the Nigerian market, majority of our passengers are also connecting to other countries. So to introduce a flight that’s going particularly to another city might not make financial sense because we know that on that flight that we’re carrying from Lagos, a number of people are actually going to other international destinations.
Australia has become a popular destination for us. We’ve also had an increase in passengers going to Namibia. Mauritius as well, which is a wonderful tourist destination and four hours from Johannesburg. It’s a beautiful island, visa-free for Nigerians, very accommodating, very affordable and we have had a number of destination weddings and conferences there, and families taking up entire resorts.

Mauritius is visa-free for Nigerians but do Nigerians need a South African visa if you’re connecting through Johannesburg?
No. All you need is an SAA ticket from Lagos to Joburg which arrives at 0500. The flight to Mauritius is at 0900, so you connect almost immediately. On the way back, there are two options because we also codeshare with Air Mauritius. So you can take the early morning flight with Air Mauritius and catch up with the SAA 1445 flight that leaves Johannesburg for Lagos.
If you’re coming back on a Sunday, you can take the SAA flight from Mauritius to Joburg and be in time for the 2300 flight. So you see where the eighth frequency moving to Sundays actually caters for so many people, including those coming from various destinations to make their connection to Lagos.
For clarity, the places that need transit visas (if you don’t have a South African visa) are the countries that share a border with South Africa. So you’re talking about Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho. Those are the countries that require a transit visa even when you have a visa for the final destination.
So if you’re transiting through South Africa and you’re going to Angola, Seychelles or Mauritius, you do not need a transit visa.

How recent is the Mauritius connection?
The flights to Mauritius have always been there. What we’re trying to do now is, as much as we’re trying to focus on domestic destinations, our new campaign now is South Africa and beyond. Beyond South Africa is very important to us, so people understand that we are an international carrier.
We don’t just take you to Johannesburg; we are global. We like to say we are an African carrier with global reach. A lot of people don’t know the number of international destinations that we fly to.

Can you tell us a few that Nigerians might be interested in?
We’ve been promoting a lot of India; Mumbai is a very popular destination for us. Our connectivity has also improved to capture the West African market. Hong Kong is also very popular. We do get a lot of traffic there from traders. Beijing as another destination that we’ve introduced and really trying to push. It’s a gem that hasn’t been discovered especially with the traders.
In the Southern hemisphere, I’ve mentioned Australia, and the connections are very good for Nigeria. There are schools in Australia that are very popular in the Nigerian market. And of course, Sao Paulo in Brazil. People usually go through Sao Paulo to connect to other South American destinations like Mexico, Panama, Venezuela… Then America. People wonder if you can fly to the US through Johannesburg, but yes, we do get a lot of traffic to New York.

In the case of the US, what’s the advantage of going down south first before coming up north?
The average business person can get to do a number of things on one trip. You can stop in South Africa and have your meeting, and then continue to the US. I guess people are just doing business everywhere, on all continents. It depends on how people structure their trip.
Talking about structuring, Christmas is coming. It’s summer in the southern hemisphere and the weather is wonderful in all those destinations (Mauritius, Seychelles…) so we ask people to plan ahead especially for Cape Town and Durban, which is also known as South Africa’s playground.

[ThisDay]

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