SAA wins On Time Performance Service Award

FlightStats recently announced the On Time Performance Service Awards (OTPS Awards) for airlines across the globe. The national carrier with its 91.17% on time performance average won in the category 'Middle East and Africa Major Airlines'.

The OTPS Awards program recognises airlines around the world that achieve sustained operational excellence. Airlines are recognised for delivering the highest percentage of flights to their arrival gates within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.

"SAA is absolutely thrilled to win this prominent award as on time performance is a critical factor considered by customers when selecting which airline to fly. Winning this award also highlights our employee's commitment to ensuring a seamless travel experience to our valued customers," said Zuks Ramasia General Mananger of Operations for SAA.

This category includes airlines based in the Middle East and Africa that operate at least 30 000 scheduled flights annually within the Middle East and Africa. The flight status coverage threshold was set at 80 percent.

Etihad Airways, Gulf Air Company, Qatar Airways and Saudi Arabian Airlines were the other four finalists.

Meanwhile, the airline said that its unrivalled on-time performance is complemented by substantial improvements that have been made in baggage handling.

SAA embarked on a system-wide, structured approach to improve baggage handling during the past year, as part of its overall passenger service enhancement project.

Several initiatives were launched to systematically re-engineer the way in which baggage is handled. Collaboration between the airline's baggage services and group security services departments, airport ground handlers, outstations and Airports Company South Africa was intensified with the view to improve the way in which SAA executes surveillance and decisively deals with challenging operational areas.

"SAA is grateful to its employees and partners for helping it to achieve this outstanding on-time performance and baggage handling success. We also appreciate the recognition that we have received from FlightStats, as well as from our passengers who regularly share their feedback with us and have provided positive reinforcement of our efforts," said Ramasia.