SAA takes a firm stand on ‘unfair’ bilaterals

'Not interested in peripheral airports' SOUTH AFRICAN Airways CEO Khaya Ngqula has strongly criticised what he calls a skewed and unfair set of circumstances where European carriers are better networked with Africa than Africa itself. In a hard-hitting statement to the Business Day last week, Ngqula spoke out about what he called the power plays of European countries and their airline carriers who demand access to the African skies but are less enthusiastic about reciprocating with the same rights for South Africa or other African carriers. The result, he said, was that passengers often had to go to Europe to connect to an African destination. No further slots were granted to British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways at the recent bilateral talks on air traffic rights between South Africa and the UK. Both were hoping for a bigger slice of the pie. “SAA has taken a firm stance and will continue to call for more frequencies into the UK’s prime port of entry,” he said, adding that he was not interested in offers of rights to ‘peripheral’ airports. SAA is keen to extend its European network, he said, with its imminent accession to the Star Alliance likely to add impetus to this move.