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Passengers with SA Express tickets will still be able to use them, despite the suspension of the airline's operating licence. South African Airways, Mango Airlines and SA Airlink will accommodate these passengers. The three partner airlines said this is to mitigate the impact after the Civil Aviation Authority on Thursday grounded the embattled SA Express. An audit of SA Express uncovered severe cases...

Travelport has announced the signing of a multi-year agreement with Qantas Airways that includes distribution of the Australian national carrier’s content and integration into Qantas’ recently announced NDC platform, the Qantas Distribution Platform. Travelport’s Rich Content and Branding merchandising solution has been deployed, giving over 65,000 of Travelport-connected travel agencies globally access to images of cabins and meals. These agents will...

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and the South African airline kulula.com have announced that they have signed a codeshare agreement to expand both airlines’ network. The new agreement will offer both KLM and kulula.com customers more destinations and more options to choose from, starting 29 May. KLM will add a KL code to kulula.com’s domestic route network, enabling KLM’s passengers from around...

British Airways will add four more weekly flights to its double-daily London - Johannesburg schedule at the end of October. It will operate the Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner, its newest aircraft, alongside the existing 14 weekly A380 services, bringing the total frequency to 18 a week. The announcement comes soon after the airline announced that it will be starting three weekly flights...

AVANI Maseru Hotel in Lesotho has opened its doors after an extensive $2 million (R25 million) renovation that included a refurbishment of all 105 hotel rooms, the hotel’s water supply and reticulation, public areas and restaurant. The project was finished in six months. Each of the hotel’s rooms and suites were upgraded, including a complete redesign of the bathrooms and vanities,...

South Africa’s Comair Limited and Lufthansa Technik have signed a comprehensive long-term Total Technical Support (TTS®) contract. In the frame of the new agreement, Lufthansa Technik will provide engineering, planning, line maintenance and component support including consumables and expendables supply for the customer’s future Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet. The services will commence in January 2019, when Comair, as...

Qantas has launched a new technology platform to enhance the airline retailing, booking and servicing capabilities for its trade partners. The Qantas Distribution Platform improves the functionality of indirect agent channels by more closely aligning them with the capabilities currently available via Qantas.com. Qantas trade partners will have access to content that is relevant to the customer’s journey, including images of...

Radisson Hotels is adding a new territory to its portfolio with the signing of the Park Inn by Radisson Lusaka Longacres in Zambia. Radisson’s African portfolio consists of 83 hotels and more than 17,500 rooms in operation and under development. Located in the Longacres suburb of Lusaka, the hotel will be situated in a prime location within the city’s concentration of...

Autograph Collection Hotels, Marriott International’s collection of independent hotels, has welcomed five African Pride properties to its global portfolio, marking the debut of the brand in South Africa. These hotels are: African Pride Melrose Arch Hotel, African Pride 15 on Orange Hotel, African Pride Mount Grace Country House & Spa, African Pride Irene Country Lodge, and Arabella Hotel & Spa,...

The Lufthansa Group and Travix have signed a multi-year agreement connecting the global online travel agency directly to the Lufthansa Group’s own NDC Offer and Order Management System. The enhanced co-operation that will be part of the Lufthansa Group’s NDC Partner Programme will provide a wide range of benefits to customers by displaying rich content and offering the Lufthansa Group airlines’ (Austrian Airlines, Brussels...

Fastjet and Emirates have concluded a refreshed interline agreement following the pan-African carrier’s migration to its new reservation platform. This agreement sees fastjet inventory available in conjunction with Emirates inventory through global distribution systems Amadeus and Travelport, and is expected to stimulate onward connecting traffic substantially throughout fastjet’s network in east and southern Africa. Both airlines share common markets in Tanzania,...

Proflight Zambia is launching its third international route, after announcing that a new service between Lusaka and the Zimbabwean capital of Harare will be up and running from July. The airline confirmed that flights between the Zimbabwean and Zambian capitals will be operational with the initial flight on 9 July. Although this route is well served by international airlines, Proflight will...