General News of Monday, 3 July 2017
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2017-07-03
The airline has recently acquired five brand new generation Airbus 330-300 aircrafts
Passengers flying from Accra to Washington DC are expected to experience the comfort of a brand new large-body aircraft acquired by South Africa Airlines, the only African airline flying direct from Ghana to the United States of America.
The airline has recently acquired five brand new generation Airbus 330-300 aircrafts, with Ghana being one of the few routes on the SAA network selected to fly this wide body aircraft consistently on the Washington route.
“This implies that the four times Accra-IAD service and four times morning flights between Accra and Johannesburg (Joburg) will be enjoying this new experience,” the Country Manager of SAA, Ms Gloria Yirenkyi, said as she addressed travel and tour operators in the country at an awards dinner organised by the airline to reward them for their contributions to the growth of the airline last year.
“I am also delighted to announce that SAA has completed the required systems set up for credit card payment processing on the BSPLink which will go live in July 2017; Work is in progress with IT systems set up for commercial codeshare partnership with our local partner, AWA Airlines, which will enable the sale of SAA long haul flights from regional markets on their regional network expansion plan for the year of which Abuja will soon launch,” Ms Yirenkyi added.
Payments
Ms Yirenkyi said SAA has entered into a partnership with Ecobank through the launch of a joint credit card linked to the accrual and redemption structure of the airline’s frequent flyer reward programme (Voyager).
“This is worth mentioning because of the added value of earning double miles from the card usage and also for flying the tickets purchased with the card and I recommend that to you to promote this with your corporates and clientele,” she said.
She also acknowledged the partnership between the airline and Stanbic Bank, saying “Stanbic Bank Ghana is sincerely appreciated, having dedicated this year as the customers’ year by lending support for customers business activations and promotions is very commendable; Stanbic has proven to be a good stakeholder in our business and could definitely be a good partner to your business as well.”
Awards
In the Excellence award category, SATGURU Travel and Tour received a platinum award in recognition of the company’s outstanding performance as the number one agent.
STELLAR Travel Limited also received a platinum award for its outstanding performance as the number two agent for the airline.
Mrs Yirenkyi paid glowing tribute to the tour operators and in particular, the award winners and expressed the willingness of the airline to serve them and their clients even better.
“We are confident that with your excellent partnership and support, SAA’s impressive route network, enhanced in-flight experience and customer focused service delivery, you will put us ahead of competition by choosing SAA for best connectivity of flights across southern Africa and beyond,” she said.
