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karatecatman Guest
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:24 pm Post subject: South Africa-India flights |
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www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/News/Article.aspx?id=915561
Proposal for additional flights between South Africa and India set to boost trade and tourism
Taschica Pillay Published:Jan 11, 2009
More airlines are expected to operate between India and South Africa following the Indian government’s approval of a proposal to increase the number of flights between the two countries.
Indian newspapers reported recently that the Indian government approved the Civil Aviation Ministry’s proposal to supercede the existing agreement, signed in 1998, which permitted Air India and South African Airways to operate 14 flights each week.
Currently only South African Airways flies the India/South Africa route, but the decision could pave the way for Indian carriers like Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines to start operating.
Air India is also now keen to resume flights to South Africa, which it discontinued a few years ago.
India’s deputy high commissioner to South Africa, Vikas Swarup, said both governments had agreed that more airlines should be allowed to operate.
“There have been two rounds of talks in Pretoria and New Delhi and we expect a new civil aviation agreement to be signed.
“This means both countries can now designate more airlines to fly between them. It would be a breakthrough and provide an institutional mechanism for more airlines to fly,” he said.
“We were told Air India were waiting for the acquisition of new aircraft when this would be started. Similarly Jet Airways has been keen to fly and hopefully something happens this year.
“Currently only SAA files to India, resulting in a shortage of capacity.”
Most SAA flights to India are full and therefore people have to go via Dubai or Mumbai on other flights. There is no direct connection to Delhi.
“Hopefully this will be resolved once the bilateral civil aviation agreement is in place. This will increase tourism, trade and people-to-people contact,” said Swarup.
The Indian consul-general in Durban, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, said: “It would be a very positive development. I believe there is a lot of commercial viability.” |
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Kabir Member
Joined: 24 Oct 2008 Posts: 791 Location: DEL
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 pm Post subject: |
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good news!! Hopefully IT and 9W will fly into SA before the 2010 WC. |
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jasepl Member
Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:57 pm Post subject: |
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If AI does resume flying to South Africa (and I'm not holding my breath) - how many stops will they have between origin and destination? My money says at least 2 ! |
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sshank Member
Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 377 Location: NYC
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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jasepl wrote: | If AI does resume flying to South Africa (and I'm not holding my breath) - how many stops will they have between origin and destination? My money says at least 2 ! |
I propose BOM-MRU-DUR-JNB!
That said, a BOM-MRU-JNB or BOM-JNB-DUR may not be that terrible. |
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Jaysit Member
Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 4346
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:25 am Post subject: |
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Considering that Emirates gets a big share of that market, a BOM-MRU-JNB flight isn't that bad. |
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AKLDELNonstop Member
Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1066 Location: Auckland
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:52 am Post subject: |
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Jaysit wrote: | Considering that Emirates gets a big share of that market, a BOM-MRU-JNB flight isn't that bad. |
They could even do a BOM-NBO-JNB. _________________ Geniuses are always misunderstood in their lifetimes. |
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circleglobe Member
Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 709
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:44 am Post subject: |
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Jaysit wrote: | Considering that Emirates gets a big share of that market, a BOM-MRU-JNB flight isn't that bad. |
So true regarding EK. In media reports South African Air execs cite EK as the reason why they cannot even make BOM-JNB daily. The traffic is there, but so is the competition. Plus on EK you can bypass BOM altogether and go to virtually every major Indian international airport of your choice.
An aside: SA is launching Buenos Aires this winter/spring, starting at 2x weekly and increasing to 3x weekly this summer. The flights will connect seamlessly to BOM, unlike via Europe where flights don't connect in at least one direction.
Not that there are huge numbers of passengers between Argentina and India, but curiously SA scheduled its flights on mostly the same days as MH (also not a daily flight), ostensibly to keep BOM as part of the connection bank to/from EZE.
For a while SA was probably the undisputed leader on GRU-India, but then guess who came into town? Although there are also European carriers, EK is now causing SA trouble on this sector as well. |
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circleglobe Member
Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 709
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:56 am Post subject: |
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Update: EK is launching DUR for Winter 2009-10.
Apparently the Durban airport and/or runway upgrades are going to be done. Unless AI, 9W, or IT act soon, which is quite unlikely, they will probably miss this possibility as well. |
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