WASHINGTON – “Evacuate, evacuate”, screamed local police in the Library of Congress as the first high-powered guests arrived for SAA’s party to launch their new Washington service. For an hour the city ground to a halt when yet another aircraft wandered into the no-fly zone and key federal buildings were placed on an emergency footing. With the all-clear, guests finally arrived and the party went on. The launch party only ended as the sun came up in South Africa on Thursday. The new flights will be operated by Boeing 747-400s. The service will be inaugurated to Johannesburg on Saturday, July 2. Billed as direct flights, the aircraft will in fact call at Accra, Ghana, in both directions. SA207 to Washington will leave Johannesburg at 18:40 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The 18 hours and five minute flight will stop at Accra for an hour at 22:55 and arrive at IAD the next morning at 06:45. SA208 will leave Washington on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 08:45 arriving at Accra at 22:55 and at JNB at 07:40. To meet the requirements for joining the Star Alliance, SAA has had to connect with the United Airlines’ hub in Washington. For the foreseeable future, SAA will continue to operate daily flights to New York via Ilha do Sal and Atlanta via Senegal, where its current codeshare partner Delta Airlines is based. TNN understands that the latter will terminate in time as part of the Star Alliance agreement. (Dave Marsh)
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