Yesterday I had the opportunity to join a media roundtable with South African Airways and SAA Group’s CEO Vuyana Jurana in New York City. It was an enlightening morning hearing from Jurana, almost 10 months into his tenure, about plans for the future of Africa’s most awarded airline.

North America is an important market for the airline. In 2017 U.S. travel to Africa was up 10.5 percent year over year, and to South Africa specifically it was up 8 percent.

ID 103581635 © Richard Van Der Spuy | Dreamstime.com

South African Airways gears up for a milestone year ahead in 2019, celebrating both its 85th year of service and its 50th anniversary of service to the United States and New York City.

An interesting note for potential tourists made during the presentation was about water in Cape Town. As the water crisis in the city did have a negative impact on the airline’s business this year, it was a point of conversation that the water continues to flow in the city after a particularly wet winter. Western Cape dams are about 65–70 percent full again.

Given recent news, Jurana addressed SAA’s plan for its financial future. The current state of the airline is not profitable, but it prepares for a massive transformation and plans to regain profitability by 2021. Some of the ways the airline plans to do so include refocusing its network and routes, using its full portfolio of products and going back to basic business practices. Jurana noted he is comfortable with where the airline is today in regards to its future outlook.

Some future improvements currently under evaluation are the potential addition of a premium-economy cabin, a focus on launching more direct routes, the addition of in-flight WiFi services, an improvement to in-flight entertainment systems and a re-evaluation of the current fleet and look at new aircraft. According to Jurana, the airline needs to be more market-driven and more agile.

— Kimberly Krol, editor in chief