Johannesburg. 25 February 2009.
South African Airways (SAA) and Virgin Atlantic have expanded their existing codeshare agreement on both carriers’ services between Cape Town and London’s Heathrow Airport.
With immediate effect, passengers can book with SAA to travel on the Virgin Atlantic service between Cape Town and Heathrow.
Virgin Atlantic operates a seasonal service between London Heathrow and Cape Town from October through to April. VS603 departs London Heathrow at 20h35pm arriving in Cape Town at 10h30am the following day. The VS604 returns from Cape Town at 22h40pm arriving into London Heathrow at 09h00am. This service operates daily until March and then three times per week in April.
In addition to SAA’s daily flights all year round between Cape Town and London, passengers will be offered more flexibility and choice of schedules on the route.
Additionally Virgin Atlantic’s passengers will be able to book to travel on SAA’s services.
This bilateral agreement extends the existing codeshare agreement, which began in October 2004, between the two partner airlines, which enables customers on Virgin Atlantic’s flights from Heathrow to Johannesburg to connect seamlessly onto SAA services to Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London and Cape Town in South Africa.
“This is a great opportunity to share our warm African welcome with Virgin Atlantic’s passengers on the Cape Town-London route and to offer our passengers more flexibility being able to book on another carrier.
“We are pleased to be building on to our long standing relationship with Virgin Atlantic by increasing our services to the UK and back while upholding SAA’s quality of service to its customers,” says Jason Krause, SAA Head Business Development.
“This codeshare extension gives Virgin’s customers even more choice of journeys between London and South Africa, and permits them to book non-stop flights to Cape Town all year round. We are delighted to be expanding our codeshare with South African Airways and are sure that passengers will enjoy having more travel options as well as the excellent service onboard with both airlines,” says Edmond Rose, Director Commercial and Revenue Planning, Virgin Atlantic
SAA’s flights between Cape Town and London operate as the following:
SA220 departs Cape Town at 19h55 and arrives in London at 06h55 am the following day. SA221departs London at 20h15 and arrives in Cape Town at 10h25 am the following.
Issued by South African Airways
Contact Robyn Chalmers
SAA Head Group Corporate Affairs
+27 11 978 3729
+27 83 282 6761
Email: RobynChalmers@flysaa.com
Virgin Atlantic Press Office
+44 1293 747373
Website: www.virginatlantic.com