FROM SAA

Dear Valued Travel Partner:

No doubt that you are well aware of the impact that the global economy has had on the travel industry, as I am sure you have been experiencing those effects on your own business. At South African Airways, well before the current economic downturn, we embarked on an aggressive and fundamental restructuring process in early 2007 to reduce costs and improve the financial performance of our airline. This process has helped to position SAA for future growth, as well as better manage our business in the current economic environment. Despite the tremendous progress that we have made over the past two years, South African Airways, like many other airlines throughout the world, has not been totally immune to the recent decrease in travel demand.

Therefore, similar to the actions taken by other airlines, it has become necessary for us to temporarily adjust our flight schedules for the first half of 2009 to better align our capacity in the North American market with forecasted demand. Beginning in mid-February, our flight schedules from both Washington-Dulles and New York-JFK will operate approximately five (5) days per week. Our plan is to resume daily service from both airports on July 1, 2009.

While it is unfortunately necessary to adjust our flight schedule to meet the reduced global demand, we remain committed to providing you and your clients with high quality, award-winning service to more destinations in Africa than any other airline.

The five (5) days per week schedule from each market will vary slightly each week in order to minimize the impact on our clients and Travel Partners. The flight schedule change will be reflected in your GDS as soon as Thursday, February 5th, so we encourage you to monitor your schedule change queues. With these schedule changes, we stand ready to provide you with assistance in re-accommodating your clients who may be impacted by affected flights.

We trust you will understand our position and the necessity for making these schedule adjustments. As always, we thank you for your business and continued support of South African Airways.

Sincerely,

I can only bet that you aren't exactly a happy camper with that news.

Since many hunters schedule their flights to be in Africa on the weekend, in order to start hunting on Sunday or Monday, this may be problematic in some ways. I would suppose that it will be business as usual on the African Continent regarding connecting flights to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Moz, etc.?

these kind of things happen to any business when the forget their customers and someone else steps in