South African Airways To Grow Fleet

South African Airways will continue with its ambitions to expand through leasing aircraft in the coming months.

The airline will expand its fleet by adding five Airbus A320s and one Airbus A330 acquired through a lease. This will increase capacity at the airline and allow for the crucial resumption of regional and international routes that had been missing following the airline’s lengthy troubles.

South African Airways last year unveiled its mammoth plan to acquire new aircraft and launch more international services. Naturally, the leasing plans unveiled are seemingly just the beginning of a lengthy expansion.

This airline has been plagued by financial debt, operational difficulties and much more that have all prevented it from performing as intended. Therefore, despite the company’s goals to expand, it’s a longer process than they’d like, with the importance placed on long-term survival.

South African massively reduced its flying fleet over recent years, which has left them with considerably less capacity. Therefore, for the flag carrier, leasing aircraft would appear to be the best method for long-term capacity increases and the resumption of routes.

The Intrerim CEO says that South African Airways will acquire the six further aircraft by year’s end, where they’ll then be flying on their network.