The good news is that the first direct airline service between South Africa and the Chinese mainland started on April 28 – but unfortunately not from Cape Town.
The first flight of China Eastern Airlines from Shanghai, with a refuelling stop in the Maldives, was due to arrive in Johannesburg at 10am on April 28 and take off on its return flight at 2.10pm. The airline has traffic rights for three flights a week. But the badly needed service will start with two a
week, using an Airbus A330-400 with 12 first class seats, 24 business class and 244 economy, until demand builds up. This is likely to happen soon.
Trade between China and South Africa is booming and according to the trade and economics section of the Chinese embassy in Pretoria, it rose by 71.7 percent year on year to R13.6 billion in the first two months of this year alone. China is also expected to become the world’s top tourism destination.
Until now, both business and leisure travellers from this country have usually gone by way of Hong Kong, on the daily flights from Johannesburg by SAA and Cathay Pacific, but some have taken the longer way round with Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, both of which fly from Cape Town.
SAA considered flying either to Shanghai, the main commercial city in mainland China, or its capital, Beijing. But when it decided to join the Star Alliance of international airlines, it was persuaded to shelve this plan in favour of allowing its passengers to be carried by its alliance partner Singapore Airlines.
China is growing in popularity as a tourism destination Sarah Uys, SAA’s acting head of communications, tells me it is now in discussions with China Eastern about possible co-operation.
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