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Star Alliance welcomes South African Airways
At a ceremony held in Johannesburg yesterday, Star Alliance, the airline network for Earth™, welcomed South African Airways (SAA) as its 18th member into the alliance. Star Alliance is the first aviation alliance to include an African airline and SAA is the first airline from Africa to have joined such an alliance.
Commenting on the event, Jaan Albrecht, Star Alliance CEO said: “On behalf of all member carrier CEOs gathered here today, it is with great pleasure that we welcome SAA into our family. With SAA we do not only gain a further member, but we more importantly provide improved access to an entire continent to our customers.”
With immediate effect, customers travelling on flights operated by SAA will benefit from all the advantages which the members of the alliance offer. These include among others, a network of more than 15,500 daily flights serving 842 destinations in 152 countries, through check-in, mileage redemption and collection and access to more than 660 lounges.
“We welcome this new course for our airline that brings tremendous advantages to our passengers. Membership of this alliance places us amongst the top airlines in the world. We are an award winning airline, and vibrantly African. Our footprint on the continent reflects our African spirit, qualities that we wish to introduce to the rest of the world. Proudly South African, our membership will allow us to show-off our African culture to the rest of the world,” said Khaya Ngqula, SAA CEO.
SAA adds key new routes and destinations to the Star Alliance Network. First and foremost its wide-ranging network across Africa will allow customers access to 21 destinations on the African Continent.
Graham Muldoon
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