New links are improving South Africa’s links to global markets and suppliers.South African Airways (SA A) is increasing f light frequencies to African destinations from November.SA A places emphasis on cargo capacity in the new services in its radio advertising.A Johannesburg-Lubumbashi service starts on November 4, which will give SA A four f lights a week each to Lubumbashi and Kinshasa.Flights to Harare and Lusaka will be increased to 12 a week, up from 10.Flights to Lagos and Accra will increase from three to four times a week.SA A will also begin f lying twice daily to Mauritius from the beginning of December.Frequencies to Perth will be upped to five times a week from January 7.The airline currently operates an Airbus A340-300 with a 42-ton freight capacity. This follows the launch at the end of September of a new Qantas A380 service from Perth to Johannesburg. The A380 payload is 84 tons.Kenya Airways, which has a code-sharing agreement with South Africa, has replaced its Boeing 737-800 aircraft with the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on the Nairobi to Johannesburg and Cape Town route.In July, TA AG Angola Airlines doubled the frequency of its dedicated freighter service between Johannesburg and Luanda using its converted Boeing B737-800BCF with a capacity of 24 tons.The airline said the cargo business was strategic for TA AG Angola Airlines, playing a key role in promoting the Luanda hub, and the new Luanda International Airport.In September, Emirates introduced a second daily A380 service between Dubai and Johannesburg.Lufthansa returned to South Africa in the same month, f lying an Airbus A350-900 three times a week between Johannesburg and Munich, with a freight capacity of around 15 tons. Regionally, Air Botswana started f lying between Gaborone and Durban in October, and increased the frequency of its Gaborone-Cape Town service. From March 2025 Airlink will offer three f lights a week between OR Tambo and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with 98-seat Embraer E190 twin-engined aircraft.They will have a capacity of two tons of freight, according to a spokesperson.British Airways has announced that it will f ly A380 aircraft on both of its double-daily London to Johannesburg f lights from June 2025, increasing existing capacity on the route by 30%. ER
