South African Airways (SAA) and Air Namibia have agreed on a long term comprehensive commercial alliance which will include regional feeder carriers South African Express, South African Airlink and Kalahari Express Airline.
A memorandum of understanding has been signed by SAA chief executive Coleman Andrews and Air Namibia's acting managing director, Jaafar Ahmad.
The airlines say that the agreement extends the preferred carrier status to the participating airlines in the alliance, which would allow them to improve services and benefits to their passengers.
Andrews sees the agreement as a further step in SAA's networking strategy, giving customers "convenient flights to every major destination on every continent". SAA has already secured alliances with Lufthansa, Swissair and Singapore Airlines.
Industry sources suggest that the alliance might be driven by both carriers' need to improve utilisation of their leased Boeing 767s.
The Namibian Government recently put up N$20 million ($3.5million) guarantees to prop up the troubled national carrier.
Source: Flight International
