South African Airways inks codeshare with Gol, expects network and fleet growth

South African Airways (SAA) signed a codeshare agreement with Rio de Janeiro-based airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes on July 1, 2024. It is a renewal of an agreement that was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic. “The reinstatement of the codeshare agreement affirms Brazil’s status as a strategically important destination for South Africa,” said SAA chief commercial officer Tebogo Tsimane. “It connects two major economies in the southern hemisphere to enable leisure tourism, and to facilitate business, networking, and trade.” The African airline’s interim CEO John Lamola told Bloomberg on July 4, 2024, it planned to increase its fleet to 21 aircraft by March next year and launch nine new destinations from Johannesburg in the following month. The agreement includes flights between Cape Town International, OR Tambo International and Galeao-Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport in Rio. It extends to domestic routes, connecting Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Gqeberha. In time, the airlines will add 60 additional Latin American destinations and many African ones to the agreement, to give travellers optimal choice and make it easier than ever to plan multi-city itineraries on a single SAA/Gol codeshare ticket. The agreement also extends to include accrual of the airline’s respective miles programmes.