South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has changed its pre-Covid one-hub strategy focused on Johannesburg O.R. Tambo and is looking at a multi-hub approach as it slowly re-enters the intercontinental market, says newly-appointed interim Chief Commercial Officer Tebogo Tsimane.

"Cape Town International has significantly developed as a second hub in Southern Africa, and for us, it does not make sense anymore to continue with our one hub pre-business rescue plan (BRP) and pandemic strategy. And our strategy also includes establishing hubs north of our home," he said in an apparent reference to SAA's planned pan-African alliance with Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta).

He told ch-aviation that SAA - which emerged from restructuring a year ago and is currently going through a partial-privatisation process - planned to "cautiously re-enter intercontinental markets" in line with the airline's business rescue plan. "We have no intention to change that strategy. Our restart is moving at a pace as planned, and long-haul routes are now in view."

Tsimane declined to disclose which intercontinental routes would be resumed. "SAA will confirm [its] intercontinental routes in due course." Still, he confirmed that Hong Kong International was not part of the initial line-up.

He earlier told Travel News that intercontinental routes planned by the end of the 2022/2023 financial years (March 2023) included:

On the aircraft SAA intends to use long-haul, Tsimane said: "The restart plan, which is very conservative and does not in any way address the long-term fleet needs of the airline, is based on the familiar Airbus aircraft flown by our current crew and remains an interim fleet. The RFP we sent out earlier was for an interim restart plan mentioned above. We will announce in due course the fleet for intercontinental routes and the long-term fleet plan".

SAA issued an RFP earlier this year for the operating lease of two A320-200s and one A330-300. The ch-aviation fleets module shows that SAA currently operates a fleet of six/seven active aircraft:

ch-aviation has reliably learned that two inactive in-house A340-600s have now been sold, but the airline did not immediately confirm this.

Asked how SAA could take strategic decisions at this stage without the involvement of its preferred strategic partner, Takatso, which is not yet involved in running the airline, Tsimane said the regulatory approval process of Takatso's bid was now with South Africa's Competitions Commission. "The process to have the Takatso Consortium become SAA's strategic equity partner with a 51% stake in the airline is continuing. Currently, the process is at the Competition Commission regulatory step."

"You will appreciate that SAA has restarted operations and is fully accountable to the current 100% shareholder, i.e., the South African government. The restart remains economically and financially cautious and responsible for re-entry into both domestic, regional, and intercontinental markets. So far, this strategy has served us well and will continue to be the bedrock of any network planning decision we take."