South African Airways Deepens Travel Trade Collaboration through Strategic Engagement

In an effort to boost the knowledge of its trade partners and equip them with the requisite skills to take advantage of the many offers available to their customers, South African Airways (SAA) held an Agents Networking Forum for its top-performing agents at the Radisson Blu Hotel, GRA, Ikeja.

The Airline set the tone for the day by holding a raffle draw and presenting Shopping Gift Vouchers to lucky winners in appreciation of their support and understanding over the past year, as well as for standing by the airline throughout the very busy festive period in December 2025, despite a few challenges then.

SAA Country Manager, Mrs Kemi Leke-Bamtefa, said: “We take our relationship with you, our trade partners, very seriously because we realise the important role you play in the value chain of the travel industry. Our records show that a large percentage of our business comes from your efforts, our trade partners. You are therefore invaluable to us, and we do not take your partnership for granted.”

The Country Manager offered apologies and expressed her deepest appreciation to the agents for their patience, understanding and the highest level of professionalism they displayed during the Christmas peak season, which was up-scaled with two additional flights, but also experienced some challenges.

She also used the forum to introduce the airline’s new Sales Manager, Mrs Adetoun Fowode, an industry trade veteran with 15 years of experience in the travel agency sector.

The Regional Manager of South African Tourism (SAT), Mr Mohammed Tanko, was also on hand to inform agents about the various travel and tourism packages available across the nine provinces of South Africa, with the theme “Come Find Your Joy.”

He described a silhouette of the many places of interest and their unique holiday offerings with top-rated hotels and resorts, from Cape Town to Mpumalanga, Free State to Limpopo, Sun City to Eastern Cape; Port Elizabeth and George Town, with particular mention of the Cape of St. Francis, popularly known as “The Venice of Africa.”

Speaking further, Mrs Kemi Leke-Bamtefa disclosed that SAA introduced two new routes: Gaborone on November 4 and Cape Town to Mauritius on December 9, 2025. She added that the airline has resumed its normal operations of four weekly flights out of Lagos on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Responding to calls from the Agents for more flights out of Lagos, the Country Manager advised passengers to travel via Accra on days that SAA doesn’t operate out of Lagos. “South African Airways is renowned for safety and security, schedule integrity, seamless travel experience with local expertise as well as competitive fares,” she assured.

She also encouraged trade partners to reach out to the airline to collaborate on and pursue strategic partnerships whenever they had specific travel requests from their customers for group travel and tailored services.

Touching on the issue of visas, the Country Manager stated that SAA doesn’t control the processing or issuance of visas.

She, however, urged agents to be more professional in their approach to offering visa assistance to their clients and warned against the abuse of the new e-visa process.

Adding his voice to this passionate appeal, Mr Mohammed Tanko noted that there are more options for acquiring visas now, including the e-visa process and the option to submit an application without dropping one’s passport.

He also remarked that longer-term visas were now being issued with a processing time of two weeks.

Wole Shadare