Star Alliance members TAP Portugal and South African Airways (SAA) have signed a code-share agreement that provides for extensive commercial cooperation. Code-share operations on the Lisbon-Johannesburg leg served by TAP are covered by this agreement as well as to other cities in South Africa run by SAA, namely: Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London. In Portugal the cities of Faro, Funchal and Porto are also included.
Subject to governmental approval the partnership should enter into force in January 2009 and enable better and more intense connectivity between the networks of both companies resulting in the offer of more benefits to their respective passengers.
With this agreement TAP will now use its code on SAA flights between Johannesburg and other cities in South Africa, hence extending the number of destinations it offers its customers.
In an attempt to correspond to the high expectations of their passengers, both TAP and SAA will continue to invest in the strengthening of their networks as a maximum priority. This will be immediately reflected in joint operations that will increase the options of flights offered to passengers between Portugal and South Africa.
“Having TAP as a code-share partner will enable us to offer even more alternatives to our customers that wish to explore Portugal, a much sought-after destination by South Africans”, said Jason Krause, in charge of the Business Development Dept. at SAA.
"South African Airways is a valuable Star Alliance partner and adding this new code-share to our bilateral partnership constitutes a considerable added value in terms of the connectivity and convenience offered to our passengers via a more extensive offer of services and destinations", said Jose Guedes Dias, TAP Alliances & External Relations’ VP. “We want to work increasingly closer to SAA and strengthen our partnership to be able to steadily offer more benefits and better access to new cities in Africa.”
Both TAP and SAA have code-share agreements with a number of international airline companies and with this agreement have now extended the possibilities offered to their passengers when accessing numerous destinations in Portugal and South Africa, departing from Johannesburg and Lisbon.
