South African Airways (SAA) has announced it is adding an additional daily flight between Johannesburg and Perth from August 16, 2012 on the back of increased demand for services between the two cities.

South African is adding Perth flights

According to South African Airways’ Country Manager for Australasia, Tim Clyde-Smith, SAA’s decision is based on increased interest in Africa as a growing tourist and commercial destination and that the airline is seeing an uptake in travelling to Europe, South America and the US via South Africa.

“We’re very excited to announce that SAA will now fly daily out of Perth from August, complementing our daily services operating from Sydney,” Clyde-Smith said.

“At a time when international airlines are cutting routes and services in the face of challenging economic times, SAA is recognizing the strength of our ties with the Australian and New Zealand markets, one of our most important routes.

“This means we will have a total of 14 flights a week from Australia to South Africa supported by the most comprehensive and growing network on the African continent.

“No other airline knows Africa like SAA, and our through-connections to popular locations like Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth together with some 20 destinations in Africa demonstrate our continuing commitment to the travelling public who fly with us.

“We’re also enjoying growth in traffic to destinations like Buenos Aires, New York, London and Continental Europe via our home city of Johannesburg.

“Connections are very good and allow people to have a different holiday stopover experience before they reach their final destination.

“And because of more investment in Africa’s mining industry for example, we are experiencing big demand from Australian companies doing business on the continent. Only SAA has the route network to meet the different demands of these businesses.

“SAA will announce exact details including times for the new flight when these have been finalised,” Clyde-Smith said.