South African Airways deploys bigger aircraft on Mumbai route

Mumbai: South African national carrier South African Airways (SAA) today said it has deployed a bigger aircraft Airbus A340-300 replacing the existing A330-200 to cater to its Mumbai-Johannesburg route.

The new state-of-the art aircraft, pressed into service from today, will increase the passenger capacity to 253 per aircraft from earlier 222, it said in a release here.
SAA now flies six days a week between Johannesburg and Mumbai as against the earlier seven days a week while maintaining the seat capacity with a bigger gauge aircraft.

Proposal to introduce e-visas will boost aviation sector, says Sajid Khan of South African Airways

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's proposal to introduce e-visas in a phased manner at nine airports complements the government's expansion of the visa on arrival scheme announced earlier this year, said Sajid Khan, Country Manager(India), South African Airways.

Expressing pleasure over the initiatives taken by the government, Khan said, "Over the last year, the Indian government has made some significant moves to abet the growth of the travel industry.
It will help create a more robust tourism sector and we welcome the move."

South African airline plane tyre burst inconveniences fliers

Passengers travelling on South African Airlines to Johannesburg had to face a lot of inconvenience after a tyre of the aircraft burst while taxing towards the runway minutes before take-off at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Aiport in the wee hours of Thursday.

Sources said the incident happened on flight SA285 around 1.35am, when they heard a huge blast while the plane was on its way to the runway.

"There was a big blast moments after the airplane started moving towards the runway. We were told that one of the tyres had gotten punctured. We thanked our stars that it didn't happen while it was on the runway for take-off," said Dr Narendra Shah, eye surgeon from Bombay Hospital, and one of the passengers.