Emirates, FlySafair partner to strengthen SA travel options

16 Nov 2020

Emirates and FlySafair have signed an interline partnership, opening up connections for customers to selected routes on FlySafair's network in South Africa.

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The partnership will see Emirates and FlySafair offer the ease of single-ticket travel, as well as easing tagging of baggage for travellers transferring from Emirates’ three gateways – Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban to FlySafair domestic points in South Africa, such as Port Elizabeth, East London and George.

Customers can also take advantage of connecting to FlySafair’s points, without backtracking to their initial destination when catching their flight back to Dubai. Customers can book their travel with EK offices and travel agencies.

Opening up travelling opportunities

Badr Abbas, senior vice president commercial operations for Africa, said: "We are pleased to begin our interline partnership with FlySafair. Their network complements our South African presence, providing an array of connections for our customers, which makes this a natural partnership. Together, we will open up new travel opportunities, and more choice for customers wishing to travel domestically. We look forward to working together and strengthening our relationship in the future."

Kirby Gordon, chief marketing officer at FlySafair, said: "Today, we are excited to announce the launch of our interline agreement with Emirates Airline. The superb service and a vast route network that Emirates offers is world-renowned, and we are proud to have partnered with them in providing customers with greater connectivity when travelling."

He added: "We are in a very fortunate position whereby we were able to restart operations in June this year. As of November, we will be operating at our full capacity again, which will see us operating just over 75% of the available domestic seat capacity in South Africa. International traffic is still very limited given the various restrictions in place, but we are happy to report that there has been a slow and steady uptick in the volumes of flights we are selling through our connection agreements like that with Emirates."

Emirates resumed its operations into Johannesburg and Cape Town on 1 October, and Durban on 8 October, and is presently operating 17 flights a week into South Africa.