SAA Wants to Expand in ACC

South African Airways plans to meet with rival operator Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise as it considers plans for establishing a hub in ACC.

The continent’s biggest carrier is targeting Ghana as the preferred location for a base and wants to work on the plan with Asky Airlines from neighboring Togo, in which Ethiopian Airlines has a stake. SAA initially considered DKR as a possible hub as it seeks to compete with Ethiopian and Kenya Airways Ltd. in tapping traffic beyond their home markets. That strategy has now been abandoned as not commercially viable, Tlali said.

“We’re now focusing on Ghana as we operate on the JNB - ACC sector,” Tlali said in response to questions from Bloomberg News.

The Johannesburg-based Business Day newspaper reported earlier that government-owned SAA wants to take a stake in Asky and relocate it to ACC, the Ghanaian capital. Asky won’t sell shares to SAA and wants to set up an Accra hub of its own, spokeswoman Traoré Afsath said by phone today.